Oregon greenlights PGE’s data center rate hike

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DATA CENTERS

• Oregon regulators approve Portland General Electric’s proposed 29.7% rate increase for data centers and other large industrial energy users, making the utility the first to comply with the state’s 2025 POWER Act. (OPB)

• A climate advocacy group urges New Mexico lawmakers to put a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, citing the facilities’ outsized energy consumption. (Source NM)

• New Mexico regulators schedule a public hearing on the proposed fuel cell-powered microgrid for the Project Jupiter data center under development in the southern part of the state. (Source NM)

• Utah startup Valar Atomics partners with NVIDIA in an effort to develop a helium-cooled small modular reactor-powered data center. (KSTU)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Nevada regulators order Libra Solar to halt water diversions for its 700-MW solar-plus-storage project under development in Mineral and Lyon counties, saying they are not authorized to use the water for construction. (Nevada Independent)

• San Diego Gas & Electric says about 25% of its residential customers currently generate power via rooftop solar and that the utility must ​“help the grid evolve” to accommodate them. (City News Service)

• A south-central California school district plans to develop a solar-plus-storage powered microgrid with 35 fast EV chargers to support long-term sustainability and resiliency goals. (Solar Power World)

GEOTHERMAL

• Quaise Energy raises $134 million to support its 50-MW superhot geothermal power plant under development near the Newberry Volcano in central Oregon. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Sable Offshore urges the U.S. Energy Department to use eminent domain to seize land in California to establish a West Coast strategic petroleum reserve that would be fed by the petroleum firm’s contested drilling platform and pipeline. (Politico)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on 284 proposed oil and gas leases on 378,805 acres in Wyoming. (news release)

CLIMATE

• An environmental justice group files a lawsuit seeking to block California regulators’ overhaul of the state’s carbon cap-and-invest market, saying it was illegal and incentivizes industrial polluters. (Los Angeles Times)

ELECTRIFICATION

• Observers say a federal court’s decision upholding southern California emissions limits for boilers and water heaters could spur heat pump and clean appliance manufacturers to bump up production. (Canary Media)

UTILITIES

• Colorado consumer advocates push back on Xcel Energy’s proposed rate increase, saying it would make electricity unaffordable and lead to more disconnections for nonpayment. (Colorado Sun)

NUCLEAR

• New Mexico residents and advocates push back against NovaCore Exploration’s proposed uranium exploration project on about 15,000 acres of federal land in the western part of the state, saying it could contaminate a groundwater aquifer. (Source NM)

• Uranium Energy asks Wyoming regulators to expand its water quality exemptions to allow it to increase production at its Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium wellfield mine. (WyoFile)

INNOVATION

• New Mexico awards nine firms $7.5 million to fund advanced energy research and development and pilot projects. (news release)

CRITICAL MATERIALS

• The U.S. Forest Service approves South32’s proposed Hermosa critical materials mine in southern Arizona, drawing advocates’ concerns over environmental impacts. (Mining Weekly)w