Pipeline path to proposed SC gas plant revealed

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

FOSSIL FUELS

• The proposed route of a pipeline through South Carolina to a planned 2,200 MW gas-fired power plant to be built by Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper unexpectedly emerges after years of speculation, prompting opponents to ding the project for its secrecy despite possible impacts to landowners and ratepayers. (Post and Courier)

• Texas regulators consider imposing cost caps on Entergy over its plan to spend $2.4 billion to build two gas-fired power plants totaling 1.2 GW, saying the utility failed to consider alternatives and has yet to show the projects will be cost effective. (Utility Dive)

• Louisiana regulators approve Entergy’s plan to provide 2.3 GW to power social media company Meta’s data center with three new gas-fired power plants and new transmission infrastructure. (WWNO)

• West Virginia gas and coal industry leaders say they’re expecting a ​“renaissance” due to a federal tax increase and executive orders they expect will increase the production of steel-making coal and a new state law to attract data centers, which would increase demand for gas. (WV News)

• Hundreds of Louisianans are evacuated after a series of explosions and fire at a hydrocarbon chemical plant. (ABC News)

SOLAR

• Solar Ranch announces a partnership with Facebook parent company Meta to build a 100 MW solar farm in South Carolina to power a nearby data center. (Utility Dive)

• A West Virginia titanium facility and associated solar-powered microgrid near completion. (WOWK)

• A Virginia county board denies a permit for a proposed 5 MW solar farm. (Amherst New Era-Progress)

NUCLEAR

• A Virginia county board unanimously approves a permit for Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ planned 400 MW nuclear power facility, which could become the world’s first grid-scale commercial nuclear fusion plant. (Virginia Business)

GRID

• A Texas county board considers residents’ opposition to PPL Electric Utilities’ proposal to build a 12-mile, 500 kV transmission line from a nuclear power plant to an industrial park. (Dallas Post)

• San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility restores power to nearly 1,000 customers after outages caused by a fallen tree and an equipment failure. (KSAT)

UTILITIES

• Tennessee Valley Authority officials will be able to sign the annual end-of-year performance checks for more than 10,000 employees despite the lack of a quorum on its board, which has been gutted after President Trump fired three members this year. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

CLIMATE

• Residents of Hazard, Kentucky, try to recover from flash flooding in February while still reeling from catastrophic floods in 2022, spotlighting the growing human and financial toll of climate-exacerbated disasters. (NBC News)

• Officials in Kerr County, Texas, say they’ve collected 411,059 cubic yards of debris since last month’s catastrophic Hill Country flooding, enough material to fill 32 football fields with more than six feet of storm debris. (KSAT)

COMMENTARY

• The federal government should buy up properties in Southwest Virginia’s coalfields and make them available to local communities for housing, agriculture, and new economic projects to reverse a significant population decline, writes the retired director of a credit rating agency. (Cardinal News)

• The Trump administration’s cancellation of the Solar for All program will cost Virginia families just as power rates are escalating from data center demand and record-breaking heat waves, writes a pastor and program director for Solar United Neighbors. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Trump admin halts construction of nearly finished offshore wind farm — Clare Fieseler

• Trump admin blocks funds for farmers who want solar — Kari Lydersen

• Trump admin’s new anti-renewables rule rooted in fossil-fuel misinformation — Kathiann M. Kowalski

• US solar plant construction is on a record-breaking spree — for now — Julian Spector

• Clean energy is getting its own national day of action. It’s about time. — Alison F. Takemura

• Why power bills are rising — and why that’s not changing soon — Kathryn Krawczyk