Michigan battery plant shows energy dominance

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

BATTERIES

• LG Energy Solution’s new $2.6 billion EV and grid storage battery components plant in Lansing, Michigan, is one of the biggest cell-manufacturing plants in the U.S., and Trump administration officials are framing it as part of its energy-dominance agenda. (Canary Media)

DATA CENTERS

• Indianapolis officials unanimously approve a year-long ban on data center construction within the city to take time to craft zoning regulations amid community pushback. (Axios)

• The developer of a $2.1 billion data center on former farmland near Columbus, Ohio, wants to power the facility with 1,350 MW of behind-the-meter natural gas generation, diesel generators, and battery storage. (Signal Ohio)

• The Republican candidate in a closely watched U.S. Senate race in Michigan calls for a statewide data center moratorium after financial disclosures showed he owns millions in tech investments that could benefit from industry growth. (The Lever)

• The National Republican Senatorial Committee privately warns AI companies that Americans’ negative views of data centers are jeopardizing their chance of holding onto an Ohio Senate seat. (Axios)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Ohio regulators approve plans for a 1.3-GW, $2 billion gas plant near Canton that represent be the first permits issued for a non-data-center-affiliated gas plant since 2019. (Signal Ohio)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• An entrepreneur and member of the Red Lake Nation is building a network of EV charging stations across the Midwest that are owned by and generate revenue for local tribes. (MPR News)

GRID

• Frustration grows as tens of thousands of NIPSCO customers in Gary, Indiana, go 11 days without power after a storm caused widespread outages. (Chicago Sun-Times)

• FirstEnergy’s CEO says the entire power grid in a west Cleveland suburb needs to be replaced at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse routine outages and improve the area’s reliability. (Crain’s Cleveland)

• A home battery storage installer that allows utilities to tap the power during high-demand periods enters the Illinois market following a new state law incentivizing virtual power plants. (Inside Climate News)

WIND

• The Ohio Supreme Court rules that six wind farms across the Midwest can sell power to the state after a renewable energy group claimed state regulators erroneously permitted the sales. (Ohio Capital Journal)

PIPELINES

• Tribal leaders say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers clearly ignored their long-held treaty rights when approving a permit for an underground tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac for Line 5. (Interlochen Public Radio)

• Despite the Army Corps’ permit approval, the fate of the proposed tunnel is still unclear as multiple legal challenges play out. (Bridge)

• Iowa regulators must wait for a judge to resolve legal challenges to a proposed carbon pipeline before they can review the developer’s new route through the state. (KCCI)

UTILITIES

• Officials with the Chicago suburb of Naperville mull the city’s future energy options, including selling its electric utility to ComEd, as complaints persist with its current electricity provider, the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency. (Chicago Tribune)

HYDROGEN

• Michigan will invest $7.5 million to research and explore naturally occurring deposits of hydrogen gas as part of a clean energy push. (MLive)