N.C. bill will raise residential energy costs, analysis finds

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POLITICS

• North Carolina lawmakers advance legislation to shift how Duke Energy distributes the cost of power it buys to supplement generation from its own power plants, which an analysis shows reduces costs for large industrial users but significantly increases prices for residential customers. (Canary Media)

• At the Canary Live event in Washington, D.C., Republican U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia discusses Hyundai’s new electric vehicle plant, solar power, expansion of nuclear power, and how those things might be affected by Trump’s ​“one big, beautiful bill” he supported. (Canary Media)

• Georgia health advocates and scientists say the Trump administration’s newly announced plans to revise carbon pollution and mercury standards to boost fossil fuel-fired power plants will damage the health of state residents, especially those in vulnerable communities close to the plants. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Politico)

• Virginia Republicans criticize Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s newly announced energy platform as too reliant on energy efficiency, weatherization, and other ​“demand-side” measures. (Virginia Mercury)

UTILITIES

• President Trump fires a third member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors, leaving just three members short of a quorum to vote on new programs and changes. (Knoxville News Sentinel, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• The elections for Georgia Public Service Commission take on outsized importance because they’re the only statewide election on the ballot this year, and because of numerous Georgia Power rate hikes in the five years since board elections were last held. (Grist)

• Duke Energy hired a consulting firm known for helping utilities fight cities’ attempts to take over their local grids to produce an estimate that Clearwater, Florida’s push to replace Duke with a municipal utility could cost the city more than $1 billion. (Tampa Bay Times)

GRID

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin calls on PJM to fire its chief executive amid criticism of the grid operator by multiple governors, who say it’s driving up power prices by paying generators too much and lagging on adding new solar, wind, and battery projects. (New York Times)

• West Virginia internet companies spat with public utilities over the cost of upgrading aging utility poles that will be used in the state’s $1.2 billion investment in expanding broadband. (Mountain State Spotlight)

SOLAR

• Florida Power & Light announces plans to build a 75 MW solar farm on a site that previously consisted of formerly citrus groves that were devastated by citrus greening. (TC Palm)

PIPELINES

• The Mountain Valley Pipeline asks a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a welding inspector who says he was fired in illegal retaliation for reporting corrosion on the pipe during construction. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A Richmond, Virginia, car dealership that exclusively sells electric and hybrid vehicles acquires a neighboring lot as it looks to expand. (Richmond BizSense)

BIOMASS

• A South Carolina city’s consideration of a biomass power plant becomes a focal point in a community conversation over the coastal city’s economic future after a longtime paper mill closed last year. (Post and Courier)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs legislation that allows oil and gas companies to treat and sell fracking wastewater for reuse in agriculture and other applications to help alleviate water shortages around the state. (WFAA)

CLIMATE

• The Trump administration plans to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency once hurricane season ends this fall, prompting questions and pushback in storm-prone states along the Gulf Coast. (Inside Climate News)

COMMENTARY

• South Carolina lawmakers and utilities should take a harder line with data centers seeking incentives and lower power rates despite studies showing only a fraction of new data centers will actually get built, writes an editorial board. (Post and Courier)

• Eliminating Biden-era clean energy tax credits would threaten businesses’ plans to create 20,000 new jobs and invest more than $32 billion into South Carolina’s economy, as well as efforts to upgrade the power grid, writes a founding partner at EMPWR Solar. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Some solar developers say they will stop doing business in Maine if lawmakers pass legislation imposing fees on existing community solar installations, while bill supporters say the measures will save consumers money, Sarah Shemkus reports.