Path forward for rural clean energy

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

SOLAR

• Farmers and clean energy advocates see the next Farm Bill as a pathway to restore and protect a popular rural clean energy funding program from ongoing attacks from the Trump administration. (Canary Media)

• Missouri lawmakers continue to deliberate over bills that clean energy advocates say would dismantle the state’s solar industry by not only halting future projects but also those already underway. (KTTN)

• Maine overtakes Minnesota as the national leader in community solar capacity per capita, which Minnesota advocates say is partly because of new policies that restrict incentives. (MPR News)

RENEWABLES

• The group urging voters in an Ohio county to keep a ban on commercial wind and solar projects under the guise of protecting farmland has ties to the fossil fuels industry, campaign finance reports show. (Canary Media)

DATA CENTERS

• Wisconsin regulators approve higher data center rate structures for We Energies with additional changes to protect ratepayers from rising costs. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

• Wisconsin is projected to forego more than $2 billion in state sales tax revenue from hyperscale data centers through incentives to freeze taxes on construction and equipment-related purchases. (Wisconsin Examiner)

• Ohio’s consumer advocate asks state regulators for more analysis to determine whether transmission pass-through charges approved for AEP aren’t shifting costs to serve data centers on to ratepayers. (Columbus Dispatch)

• Leaders in a small Minnesota community with at least two data center proposals before them are scheduled to vote on zoning rules today that critics say don’t go far enough to limit the industry. (MPR News)

• Energy Secretary Chris Wright says at an event in Iowa that data centers are a key pillar in President Trump’s attempt to revive U.S. industrial jobs. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

UTILITIES

• Michigan’s Democratic attorney general says DTE Energy’s promise to not raise rates for two years if it’s granted approval for a large data center contract amounts to a ​“ransom note.” (Michigan Advance)

WIND

• The Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of a county that enacted a wind energy moratorium over a developer who was building a $300 million project and argued that it should not be subject to the pause. (Radio Iowa)

COAL

• Indiana environmental groups say the Trump administration’s plan to roll back utility requirements for coal ash cleanup would be particularly harmful in the state with the most coal ash dumpsites. (WFYI)

CLIMATE

• The Trump administration is reportedly working to repeal a Biden-era power plant rule by arguing carbon capture and storage and co-firing gas at coal plants aren’t viable emission-reduction options. (E&E News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Trump is blocking solar for farmers. Can the Farm Bill fix that? — Kari Lydersen

• Fossil fuel promoters tied to campaign to keep Ohio county renewable ban — Kathiann M. Kowalski

• Another offshore wind firm is seeking a payout as Trump stifles sector — Maria Gallucci

• Solar power soared last year — and it’s not slowing down — Kathryn Krawczyk