Preserve clean energy programs, N.C. advocates tell Congress

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

CLEAN ENERGY

• Advocates lobby Congress not to cut clean energy programs that one Texas Republican Congress member called ​“low-hanging fruit,” especially in North Carolina where the climate package has already led to more than $20 billion in climatetech investments and more than 17,000 new jobs. (Canary Media)

• Texas wind, solar and batteries all set new production records in Texas this month as renewables surged to heft the state grid during the ​“shoulder season” when coal and gas plants go offline for maintenance. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• A Virginia county board considers a proposed solar ordinance that would effectively block any projects larger than 999 kW. (Mecklenburg Sun)

• A Texas developer sues a Virginia county to compel it to act on its proposal to build a 90 MW solar farm after the county board denied the request and imposed a 2,350 acre cap on all solar projects. (Mecklenburg Sun)

• Duke Energy announces plans to build four 74.9 MW solar farms in Florida. (Renewables Now)

• The company behind a 100 MW solar project under construction in Arkansas sees an opportunity to fill the generation gap left by Entergy’s planned retirement of two coal-fired power plants by 2030. (Arkansas Business)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Texas company continues to inject wastewater from its oil and gas operations even after state regulators suspended permits and banned the practice in a part of the state with frequent earthquake activity. (Houston Chronicle)

• The president of the West Virginia Coal Association says he’s ​“surprised and shocked” at FirstEnergy’s plans to add natural gas units at two coal-fired power plants in the state. (WV Metro News)

• Dominion Energy files plans to build four hydrogen-capable natural gas-fired units totaling 944 MW in Virginia. (Virginia Business)

NUCLEAR

• A Texas lawmaker proposes earmarking $2 billion for a taxpayer-funded incentive program to attract nuclear power plants to the state. (Dallas Morning News)

GRID

• A Texas lawmaker files a bill to prepare the state grid for a surge in demand from power-hungry data centers and to reform rate structures so state residents aren’t stuck paying the cost of adding power to accommodate them. (Houston Chronicle)

• Experts say the combination of Trump’s threatened tariffs and Texas lawmakers’ targeting of renewables for higher regulatory requirements could push energy prices up for state residents. (Inside Climate News)

• West Virginia officials move to bypass ratepayer protections in an attempt to attract data centers to prop up the state’s fossil fuel industries. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

OVERSIGHT

• Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders backs a state bill to let utilities promise blocks of power and create rate structures to entice businesses to the state. (Arkansas Business)

• An Arkansas lawmaker asks state utility regulators to suggest changes to the process for utilities to build power plants after his bill that would do so fails to pass the legislature. (Arkansas Advocate)

COMMENTARY

• Texas must join Louisiana, North Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia as states allowed to regulate carbon capture projects if it’s to take advantage of its numerous natural advantages and lead the growing industry, writes the president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers. (Dallas Morning News)

• The economic toll from Hurricanes Helene and Milton point to the need for Florida to shift from reactive disaster response to proactive disaster reduction, writes a United Nations official. (Miami Herald)

• Trump’s dismantling of federal climate programs and his support by Republican Congress members pose an acute threat to Louisiana, which already ranks as the most polluted state and is at high risk from climate change, writes a columnist. (NOLA.com)