New England’s hydropower mystery

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

POLITICS

• Several Republican Congress members whose districts have benefited most from Inflation Reduction Act grants refuse to comment on calls to scrap the incentives. (The Guardian)

• EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was a moderate on environmental issues while in Congress, but moved to the right in his campaign for New York governor and is now attempting to dismantle the EPA. (New York Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Congress members discuss including a tax on electric vehicles in a highway spending package. (E&E News)

• As Hyundai’s large Georgia plant opens, its shift from planning to exclusively build electric vehicles to now also embracing hybrids indicates the auto industry’s increasing uncertainty about the EV transition. (NPR)

OVERSIGHT

• The Securities and Exchange Commission votes to stop defending a Biden-era rule that required some companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. (The Hill)

• President Trump abruptly fires a Biden-nominated member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors, drawing criticism from energy and environmental organizations for creating ​“uncertainty.” (Knoxville News Sentinel)

GRID

• The American Society of Civil Engineers grades the U.S.’s electric grid a D+, down from last year’s C-, amid a shortage of transformers, increase in severe weather, and lack of transmission capacity. (Utility Dive)

• As Puerto Rico continues to struggle with the least reliable energy system in the U.S., advocates say a transition to widespread solar power is the best way to shore it up. (Politico)

PIPELINES

• A federal judge dismisses the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit attempting to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline, saying the suit was prematurely filed before a key environmental study is finished. (North Dakota Monitor)