Solar and wind blockade lifted

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.

CLEAN ENERGY

• A judge blocks a wave of Trump administration policies that have stymied solar and wind permitting, including a requirement that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum personally sign off on clean energy projects. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A 380 MW peaker plant opens in Texas, the first to be built using a largely untapped state fund meant to juice gas power plant construction. (KXAN)

• Texas oil and gas producers say they’re hesitant to ramp up production even as global crude prices soar, as they’re unsure how long the boom will last. (Houston Public Media)

• Spire will sell its Mississippi gas distribution arm to Delta Utilities for $75 million. (news release)

• While Louisiana’s 2010s petrochemical and energy development boom was projected to create a ​“tidal wave” of jobs, employment growth has instead flatlined around the state while residents faced more toxic spills and negative health effects. (Verite)

GEOTHERMAL

• Houston-based advanced geothermal startup Fervo Energy reveals its plans to go public with a filing that details its potential to develop as much as 42 GW of capacity. (Canary Media)

STORAGE

• Lightshift Energy and Virginia power wholesaler the Blue Ridge Power Agency announce plans to install 5 MW energy storage projects at five distribution-connected sites that will help during times of high demand. (Utility Dive)

CARBON CAPTURE

• The U.S. Energy Department confirms it will preserve funding for two Southeastern carbon capture projects: the South Texas DAC Hub and Louisiana’s Project Cypress. (Reuters)

SOLAR

• University of Arkansas researchers are studying floating solar arrays installed on irrigation reservoirs, which they say could allow farmers to supplement their incomes with power production while sparing agricultural land. (Times Record)

• Geronimo Power starts operations at a 270 MW Texas solar plant. (Renewables Now)

UTILITIES

• A newly enacted Kentucky law expands the state’s Public Service Commission from three to five members and sets stronger qualification requirements for members, and expands the transmission siting board from seven to nine members. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

• Florida households saw more than 2.1 million power shutoffs in 2024 because of an inability to pay — a rate of energy insecurity that’s among the highest of the 28 states that report such data. (Inside Climate News)

• Tennessee legislators pass a bill that would require municipal utilities to add more representatives if they serve customers outside of their home city or county, sending it to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk. (WZTV)

GRID

• Texas’s Public Utility Commission considers how to contend with a projected 367.8 GW of power demand by 2032 as data centers and other large power users come online. (E&E News)

LITHIUM

• Independent water testing finds toxic metals and other contaminants near a Tesla lithium refinery outside Corpus Christi, Texas, after the state said the refinery wasn’t violating any permits by discharging black wastewater into a drainage ditch. (Texas Tribune/​Inside Climate News)

COAL

• The U.S. Interior Department’s inspector general accuses a former mining agency employee of throwing out violations and renewing noncompliant permits for Sen. Jim Justice’s (R-W.Va.) family coal company. (E&E News)

• Virginia maintains strict laws governing coal ash cleanup even as the federal government moves to weaken its standards. (Virginia Mercury)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• EV maker Scout Motors’ on-site training facility opens in Columbia, South Carolina, to prepare workers for assembly jobs. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

EFFICIENCY

• Six of nine members of the Richmond, Virginia, city council are backing a plan to create an energy efficiency program, with a goal of reducing power bills for residents. (Richmonder)