Democrats’ across-the-board wins

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.

ELECTIONS

• Georgia Democrats defeat two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s Public Service Commission in long-delayed elections widely seen as a referendum on Georgia Power’s rising power bills. (Georgia Recorder, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins election as Virginia’s first woman governor while Democrats build on their majority in the state legislature, likely ensuring that Virginia’s landmark energy law mandating a transition from fossil fuels by 2050 remains intact. (Associated Press, Inside Climate News)

• New Jersey Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill won in large part because of her steadfast plan to declare an energy emergency and freeze utility prices, analysts say. (Heatmap)

OFFSHORE WIND

• A federal judge rules that the Trump administration can reconsider the Biden-era approval of the SouthCoast Wind development off Nantucket. (New York Times)

• Ørsted reports a third-quarter loss amid a wave of setbacks thanks to the Trump administration’s anti-offshore wind policies. (CNBC)

UTILITIES

• New analyses show rates at investor-owned utilities are rising more quickly than at publicly owned utilities, especially in California. (Inside Climate News)

• Experts say there’s strong evidence Alabama Power has effectively ​“captured” state regulators who have consistently granted the utility unusually high profit margins, to the point where it has some of the highest average total residential electric bills in one of the nation’s poorest states. (Inside Climate News)

GRID

• Southwest Power Pool seeks to merge its transmission planning and generation interconnection processes under a proposal the grid operator says could help manage surging demand. (Utility Dive)

• Xcel Energy asks Minnesota regulators for permission to double the size of an anticipated battery storage project to 600 MW at a location adjacent to a large coal plant that’s slated to close in 2030. (Utility Dive)

• Energy company Constellation says it is prepared to invest more than $20 billion in building some combination of natural gas power plants, nuclear facilities, and battery storage systems in Maryland. (Baltimore Sun)

CLIMATE

• A new United Nations report projects global climate policies will limit global warming to less than 3 degrees Celsius this century — a win from previous projects that forecast an increase of as much as 5 degrees. (Inside Climate News)

EFFICIENCY

• A federal appeals court upholds stricter efficiency standards for gas-powered commercial water heaters and consumer furnaces, enacted under the Biden administration. (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Florida and South Carolina U.S. senators file a bill to continue a ban on oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. (WUSF)

NUCLEAR

• Scientists and former regulators raise alarm bells about a newly approved plan to let the Nuclear Regulatory Commission streamline approvals of advanced reactors that have already been OKed by the Energy Department. (E&E News)

CLEAN ENERGY

• A Washington State University report finds integrating solar arrays and agricultural practices on 87,000 acres of farmland could generate up to 17.4 GW, helping meet state clean-energy mandates while benefitting crops. (KOMO)