SCOTUS rejects HB 6 appeal

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.

COURTS

• The U.S. Supreme Court declines to take up the cases of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges, the only two people who have served prison time in connection with the state’s utility corruption scandal. (Canary Media)

• Oak Park, Illinois, is among several communities facing lawsuits over moves to phase out gas in buildings — and in most cases, municipalities’ pro-electrification policies are winning. (Canary Media)

MINING

• President Donald Trump signs a measure that strips protections from land near the Minnesota Boundary Waters and opens it up to mining. (The Hill)

POLITICS

• Campaign finance reports indicate dark-money nonprofits are spending big on a Michigan ballot measure that seeks to bar utilities and state contractors from engaging in political spending. (Bridge Michigan)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Michigan House Republicans advance a bill that would roll back the state’s clean energy mandate, sending it to a full vote in the GOP-controlled body. (Michigan Advance)

UTILITIES

• Ann Arbor, Michigan begins installing residential solar and battery storage systems as part of a first-of-its-kind project for a city-owned utility. (MLive)

• DTE Energy proposes another rate increase just two months after Michigan customers saw a 4.6% rise, and as it proposes pausing rate hikes for two years if its data center project with Oracle comes online next year as planned. (MLive)

NUCLEAR

• Former workers at Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear plant voice their support for reopening the facility, which owner NextEra hopes to do in partnership with Google. (Iowa Public Radio)

SOLAR

• Minnesota loses its spot as the nation’s community solar leader to Maine. (MPR News)

• Missouri lawmakers continue to debate a potential solar power moratorium as their legislative session comes to a close. (KCRU)

• Harvey, Illinois, leaders approve a feasibility study for a solar project on city land. (Chicago Tribune)

• A Columbus, Ohio, school finishes installing a 700-kW solar array, which it hopes will lower its power bills and emissions impact. (WCMH)

• Dearborn County, Indiana, votes against forming an advisory committee that would amend ordinances regarding the development of solar, battery storage, and data centers, which the county has paused until next February. (WCPO)

GRID

• PJM Interconnection’s market monitor encourages federal regulators to reject Hull Street Energy’s planned purchase of two peaker plants in Illinois and Ohio, saying the company hasn’t disclosed enough information about its plans to own power generation and develop data centers. (Utility Dive)

• PJM opens its interconnection queue for the first time since 2022 after pausing requests to deal with a massive backlog. (E&E News)

DATA CENTERS

• Organizers who defeated a data center development in a small Wisconsin city have built a toolkit to help other communities do the same. (Next City)

• Another small Wisconsin town votes to ban data center development. (Wisconsin Watch)