Judge calls for timeout in lawsuit against Dominion wind

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WIND

• A federal judge temporarily stays a lawsuit against Dominion Energy over its offshore wind farm near Virginia to give the groups involved in the case more time to consider how they want to proceed since President Trump signed an order to pause all new and review existing federal wind energy leases and permits. (WHRO)

• Congressional Republicans’ ​“big beautiful bill” and its rollback of clean energy tax credits could undermine companies like wind turbine component maker GE Vernova, which opened a 600,000-square-foot facility in Florida earlier this year, as well as smaller companies that supply it. (Pensacola News Journal)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Experts say conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran so far has been a ​“non-event” for Texas oil and gas producers, but they’d benefit from higher global prices if oil tankers begin avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Telegram)

• More than 100 employees at Texas oil and gas driller Encino Energy are told they’ll be laid off following the $5.6 billion sale of the company last month to oil and gas giant EOG Resources. (Houston Chronicle)

• Experts say Republicans’ push to slash funding to cut methane emissions and develop clean hydrogen will strip the oil and gas industry of incentives to build climate-friendly infrastructure that could keep it going for decades to come. (E&E News)

• Texas drilling activity declines for an eighth straight week, with the weekly U.S. rig count falling to its lowest level since 2021. (Houston Chronicle)

LITHIUM

• Oil producer Halliburton is awarded a contract to plan and design GeoFrame Energy’s geothermally-powered project to mine battery-grade lithium carbonate from beneath East Texas. (KETK)

• Arkansas regulators approve a 2.5% lithium royalty rate for an ExxonMobil subsidiary as the company gears up to extract the mineral from subterranean brine. (Arkansas Advocate)

SOLAR

• The Louisiana attorney general announces an investigation of Tren Solar, which abruptly closed and has been barred from operating in neighboring Arkansas. (WVUE)

OVERSIGHT

• The newly elected chair of the Texas Railroad Commission says he supports innovation within the oil and gas sector, especially when it comes to recycling water to relieve state water shortages. (Houston Chronicle)

NUCLEAR

• After the U.S. Supreme Court reverses a lower court’s decision, Texas’ Permian Basin braces for Interim Storage Partners’ plan to build a facility to store up to 5,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons of other radioactive waste. (Houston Chronicle)

HYDROGEN

• West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito says she’ll look to extend the quick phaseout of hydrogen incentives in the Senate bill. (The Hill)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Audi’s electric vehicles have rapidly depreciated in value and are available in Tennessee for 60% off of their original MSRP — likely due to advancements in technology, concerns about battery degradation, and a high initial price. (Tennessean)

GRID

• Documents reveal the grid in a rural North Carolina town with a municipal utility has fallen into disrepair — in part because it’s used electric fund revenue to pay for other government operations — leading to repeated power surges in recent months. (Inside Climate News)

• The CEO of Texas’ grid operator says officials have conducted more than 3,000 power plant and transmission substation inspections since the disastrous 2021 winter storm, and the grid is in good shape for summer heat. (KTBC)

• West Virginia regulators begin taking public comment on a company’s pursuit of an air quality permit for a microgrid to power what could be ​“among the largest data center campuses in the world.” (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

UTILITIES

• Georgia regulators hold their third public hearing on Georgia Power’s long-term resource plan, which projects the growing number of data centers will increase power demand up to 8,200 MW by 2031. (WSB)

COMMENTARY

• Virginia Democrats and Republicans are reconsidering a state law to transition entirely to renewables by 2050, especially amid ongoing conversations about data centers, nuclear power, and the fate of Dominion Energy’s coal-fired hybrid energy plant, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Steelmakers planning new facilities in the U.S. are embracing a cleaner technology for purifying iron ore, which can then be used in electric furnaces to finish the steelmaking process, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.

• A growing number of rural counties are installing EV chargers, though major charging deserts remain, Julia Tilton reports.