Solar boom vs Trump

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

FEDERAL FUNDING

• Federal funding for electric school buses, EV charging stations, and other U.S. EPA programs remained inaccessible Wednesday, days after multiple federal judges halted the Trump administration’s spending freeze. (Politico)

• The Army Corps of Engineers confirms it has paused evaluation of 168 pending permits for renewable energy projects. (Heatmap)

• The federal spending pause and uncertainty surrounding energy loans raise concern for utilities over whether the federal government can be a reliable partner for investment going forward, a Columbia Law School professor says. (Utility Dive)

• Trump’s freeze of clean energy and infrastructure funding creates cascading problems for groups that rely on the money, including an effort that secured nearly $300 million for northeast Ohio clean energy and pollution reduction projects, and a nonprofit conducting an ambitious air monitoring project in marginalized communities in the Carolinas. (E&E News, Inside Climate News)

POLITICS: In a first memo to his department, new Energy Secretary Chris Wright tells the department he’s planning a ​“comprehensive review” of appliance efficiency standards, and outlines other priorities. (Axios)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Utilities have extended the retirement dates of nearly one third of coal plants across the country, even as a study shows that it’s more expensive to run nearly every U.S. coal plant than to build renewable replacements. (New York Times)

• Texas’ liquified natural gas producers had anticipated ramping up exports but now face a 15% retaliatory tariff from China and the prospect Trump might ramp up a trade war with the European Union, its largest market. (Houston Chronicle)

STORAGE

The U.S. needs to install 700 GWh of storage capacity by 2030 to meet its energy needs, the Solar Energy Industries Association says. (Utility Dive)

CLIMATE

The Trump administration terminates the fledgling Biden-era American Climate Corps, but independent programs under it will continue largely unaffected. (Los Angeles Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Trump’s rollback of clean energy incentives hasn’t yet affected BMW’s $1.7 billion plan to adapt its existing South Carolina factory to make electric vehicles and add a battery plant. (Post and Courier)