Louisiana LNG plant halted pending climate review

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Louisiana judge rejects a permit for the Commonwealth LNG liquified natural gas terminal, ordering state regulators to review how its greenhouse gas emissions will affect nearby Gulf Coast communities. (Louisiana Illuminator, Associated Press)

• Data shows the number of orphaned wells in Texas has grown this year to more than 10,000, with the number likely to soar even higher as the oil and gas industry sees falling oil prices and a downturned market. (Houston Chronicle)

• West Virginia partners with Diversified Energy to create a first-in-the-nation financial assurance fund to pay for retiring oil and gas wells. (West Virginia Watch)

OVERSIGHT

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to approve any applications for homeowner buyouts and disaster mitigation funding in western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit last year, and has only approved about a fifth of applicants for federal disaster assistance from July’s flash flooding in Kerr County, Texas. (Asheville Citizen-Times, Texas Tribune)

• The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works schedules a hearing for four of President Trump’s nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors, as activists warn against the administration’s attempts to privatize the federal utility. (Knoxville News Sentinel, news release)

• Virginia’s William & Mary Law School launches a new Center for Energy Law & Policy with former state and federal regulator Mark Christie at its head to study how to meet growing power demand from data centers amid the clean energy transition. (WHRO)

SOLAR

• North Carolina utility-scale solar developer Pine Gate Renewables plans to file for bankruptcy protection in early November, adding to the number of solar firms struggling to stay in business under Trump administration pressure. (Politico)

• A group of Virginia nonprofits hosts an event to encourage schools to install solar panels before federal clean energy tax credits expire. (WHRO)

• A Virginia county board votes to deny Dominion Energy a proposed siting agreement and special exception permit application for a 98 MW solar farm, effectively closing the door on large-scale solar developments after removing solar as an allowed land use from its zoning ordinance. (Mecklenburg Sun)

• Qcells’ recycling arm partners with solar equipment distributor Greentech Renewables to build out a nationwide network for solar panel recycling, beginning with a community collection hub in Florida. (news release)

GRID

• The Loan Programs Office closes a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for an AEP subsidiary to reconductor and rebuild around 5,000 miles of transmission lines in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Midwest states. (Canary Media)

• “Grab yourself a couple of turbines”: Tech companies build their own gas-fired power plants in West Texas and Memphis, Tennessee, as part of an ​“energy Wild West” in which companies are making their own generation to bypass grid backlogs. (Wall Street Journal)

• The PJM grid region needs 16 gigawatts of energy storage by 2032 to ensure sufficient resources on the system, according to a new analysis. (Utility Dive)

• Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones proposes a slew of data centers as part of a $10 billion rural hospital project his family is backing near Atlanta, which could complicate his bid for governor. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Nvidia-backed AI startup Poolside partners with CoreWeave to propose a massive data center complex on more than 500 acres in West Texas, to be powered by natural gas produced in the fracking hotspot. (Wall Street Journal)

• Experts discuss the wave of new data centers in North Carolina and how they’re affecting Duke Energy’s plans to build more gas-fired power plants. (WFAE)

• Meta announces plans to invest $1.5 billion into a scaled-up data center on 1,000 acres near the Texas-New Mexico state line, which has received a special rate from El Paso Electric. (El Paso Matters)

AVIATION

• In North Carolina, Honda’s business jet subsidiary completes a test flight of its HondaJet using a blend of 100% sustainable aviation fuel. (Nikkei Asia)

COMMENTARY

• A dredging spill at Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 liquified natural gas export terminal in Louisiana is damaging the livelihood of people in the area’s fishing industry, write the chair of the Fisherfamily Advisory Council for Tradition & Stewardship and director of the Habitat Recovery Project. (The Advocate)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chart: EV sales just hit a record in the US, but a cliff looms — Dan McCarthy

• This startup’s electric roasters cut carbon and costs from coffee-making — Jeff St. John

• Trump admin complicates New York’s clean-energy plans — Lauren Dalban