Rural N.C. town lands geothermal grant

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GEOTHERMAL

• The nonprofit Enfield Energy Futures receives a $300,000 seed grant for a pilot project to develop a neighborhood form of geothermal energy for the municipal utility in the rural, largely Black town of Enfield, North Carolina. (Canary Media)

STORAGE

• Battery recycling startup Ascend Energy — which runs a plant in Georgia and is building another in Kentucky — files for bankruptcy, illustrating the difficulties of the would-be battery recycling industry. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Port of Corpus Christi in Texas handled a record level of oil exports in March after spending $1 billion over the last decade on expansion and amid market pressure from the war in Iran. (Wall Street Journal)

• North Carolina regulators will hold a public hearing today on Duke Energy’s proposal to build a sixth gas-fired peaker turbine at an energy complex. (WFAE)

• Texas landowners wrestle with thousands of old, low-producing oil and gas wells operated by struggling companies that can’t afford to plug them. (Inside Climate News)

• The CEO of Alabama-based Diversified Energy calls for expedited permitting to build new natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure to increase global exports from the U.S. (WV Metro News)

• The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously finds Chevron met legal requirements to transfer a lawsuit alleging it’s responsible for Louisiana’s eroding coastline from state to federal court, which could open the door for other parties to shift similar suits to venues they see as more favorable. (E&E News)

GRID

• Texas’ grid operator projects ample power supply to meet summer demand this year, but warns data centers and population growth will push demand to quadruple by 2032 — although officials question that projection. (Houston Chronicle, Houston Chronicle)

OVERSIGHT

• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s board searches for a new CEO who is able to manage the federal utility, meet soaring demand while keeping costs low, and work for a significantly lower salary than previous executives. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) amends bills to give state regulators more authority to set Dominion Energy’s rate of return and to rein in the cost of moving power lines underground and building new infrastructure for data centers. (VPM)

• A commissioner on the three-member Texas board that regulates oil and gas is peddling a crypto token tied to the value of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, raising questions about whether that presents a conflict of interest. (Texas Tribune)

• West Virginia regulators agree to raise base rates for Appalachian Power if it follows through on its securitization plan and agrees not to file for another such increase until after June 1, 2027. (WV Metro News)

NUCLEAR

• BWX Technologies produces layered TRISO nuclear fuel for radioactive fission at a Virginia factory. (Cardinal News)

COMMENTARY

• Georgia Power’s 2-GW expansion of nuclear Plant Vogtle cost $36 billion and took 15 years to complete, compared to Texas’ development of 36 GW of solar and storage over two years for the same price, writes the founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy. (Utility Dive)