N.C. groups fight to restart Duke’s solar investments

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SOLAR

• Clean energy businesses and advocates file a motion fighting a North Carolina regulator’s order abruptly canceling Duke Energy’s solar farm investments until it submits a new carbon-reduction plan. (Canary Media)

DATA CENTERS

• Elon Musk’s xAI more than doubles the number of gas generators at its Mississippi facility that powers two Memphis, Tennessee-area data centers, for a total of 46 ​“mobile” turbines exempt from state air quality oversight. (Mississippi Today)

• A central Texas town’s hasty push to attract a hyperscale data center is causing conflict with the nearby city of Waco, which owns the regional sewer system and holds water service rights for the site. (Texas Tribune)

• Georgia residents worry the rapidly expanding data center sector and its requirements for new grid infrastructure are devouring land through purchase and eminent domain. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

COAL ASH

• The Trump administration moves to transfer federal oversight of toxic coal ash storage to more states, even though advocates say Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and other states with agencies that already monitor coal ash are underfunded and unable to rigorously enforce standards to protect groundwater and surrounding communities. (Grist)

STORAGE

• Virginia-based inverter and storage company Fluence Energy signs deals with two hyperscalers after lagging revenue the first part of the year due to rising lithium prices. (Utility Dive)

GRID

• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Laura Swett says grid operator PJM Interconnection may be ​“too big to function” because it represents more than a dozen states with widely varying regulatory structures, resources, and politics. (Utility Dive)

• Kentucky Power files a notice with state regulators to begin the process of seeking approval for what seems to be a major generation project, but there are few details so far. (Mountain Eagle)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Republican U.S. Sen John Cornyn of Texas partners with Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman on a bill to block future presidential administrations from halting new liquefied natural gas export terminals. (Houston Chronicle)

• West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announces that global engineering group Sandvik and Alpha Metallurgical Resources will invest $25 million to establish a mining material manufacturing facility. (WV Metro News)

NUCLEAR

• Kentucky lawmakers from both parties back a push to incentivize nuclear energy companies to move to the state, but environmental groups and other parties question its cost, regulatory oversight, and what to do with nuclear waste. (Kentucky Lantern)

• Scientists in Newport News, Virginia, research ways to boost the efficiency of nuclear fusion reactors — a technology has far to go to meet commercial viability. (WHRO)

UTILITIES

• Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to change how it calculates which customers cover the cost of its offshore wind farm in a way the utility says will save ratepayers nearly a dollar per month, but regulators have proposed a different approach. (Virginia Mercury)

• Georgia Power reaches a tentative deal involving its storm damage and fuel costs that could result in a reduction of $4.04 in monthly bills for the average residential customer. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

COMMENTARY

• Virginia’s congressional delegation must fight Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to strip states of the rights to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate change and other environmental harms, writes the Virginia director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. (Daily Press)

• Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger should sign legislation allowing localities to require diversion of methane emissions from organic waste by large generators, write a pair of professors. (Virginia Mercury)