Planned uranium facility alarms Tennessee residents

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NUCLEAR

• Jonesborough, Tennessee residents are alarmed by BWX Technologies’ plan to build a high-purity depleted uranium manufacturing facility to supply the federal government for national defense. (Daily Yonder)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Two Texas landowners file a class action lawsuit alleging that Tesla illegally dumped carcinogenic toxins from its lithium refinery on their property. (Houston Chronicle)

EMISSIONS

• Georgia is among the states that previously challenged Biden-era air quality rules but which now are citing them as standards in permit requirements for gas-fired power plants. (E&E News)

• Virginia lawmakers adjust the state’s two-year budget plan to return 45% of funds earned through its membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative back to ratepayers instead of funneling the money entirely to energy efficiency and flood mitigation projects. (Virginia Mercury)

DATA CENTERS

• Texas sees a data center boom with at least 248 projects planned statewide, drawn by lax regulation and the state’s business-friendly policies but sparking concerns about already strained resources like energy and water. (Texas Tribune)

• Atlanta more than quadrupled the amount of space for data centers to lease from April 2024 to March 2025, but the sector still has a staggeringly low 1% vacancy rate. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• West Virginia residents frustrated at state policies prohibiting local authority over data centers point to the state’s fight in the 1980s against large-scale commercial landfills as a source of inspiration for how to fight back. (Mountain State Spotlight)

• A growing number of South Carolina counties impose moratoriums on data center development so they can draft rules. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

• A data center developer pursues plans for a 500,000-square-foot project on 11 acres in Georgia despite the city’s moratorium on such projects. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• Texas A&M University researchers collaborate with George Washington University and the University of California, Berkeley, to analyze common causes of data center fires and identify strategies to counteract them. (news release)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A coal company owned by Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia owes the state $1.61 million in delinquent fines for 214 violations, and the debt has grown nearly a third since January. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

• Kentucky power plants still burn more than 20 million tons of coal each year, but the majority of that coal is mined out of state. (Courier Journal)

• President Donald Trump criticizes Texas’ oil and gas industry for failing to significantly lower gasoline prices even as oil prices ​“are dropping like a rock!” (Houston Chronicle)

• Cummins Inc. announces an agreement to provide gas generator sets to Circe Energy to support behind-the-meter microgrids for Texas data centers. (Post-Journal)

• TECO Peoples Gas surveys homes in South Tampa, Florida, to identify and register gas generators after the 2024 hurricane season resulted in numerous power outages. (WTSP)

UTILITIES

• Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi calls for a more extensive regulatory review of NextEra Energy’s proposed merger with Dominion Energy, which would create the largest utility in U.S. history. (Virginia Scope)

CLIMATE

• Data shows West Virginia has experienced more than twice as many flooding events since 2016 than in the 10 years before. (West Virginia Watch)