Solar boosts a N.C. food bank as GOP considers cuts

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SOLAR

• A North Carolina food bank begins operation of a 1 MW solar array that is expected to save it $143,000 per year, but Congress is considering repealing the federal tax credit that enabled the project. (Canary Media)

• Solar manufacturer Qcells launches a new venture that will recycle about 500,000 solar panels annually at its Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Houston solar company Sunnova Energy lays off 718 workers to cut costs as one of its subsidiaries files for reorganizational bankruptcy. (Houston Chronicle)

STORAGE

• Envision Automotive Energy Supply Co. pauses construction of its South Carolina battery factory two years after breaking ground due to ​“policy and market uncertainty,” though it affirms its commitment to eventually complete the $1.6 billion plant. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Louisiana has benefitted from nearly $40 billion in new solar farms, low-carbon ammonia and hydrogen plants, factories supplying electric vehicle battery materials, and other investments from clean energy tax credits that Congress is considering rolling back. (Times-Picayune)

• North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein urges Congress to ​“protect the clean energy investments” that have led to more than 20,000 jobs and $24 billion in investments in the state. (Goldsboro Daily News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Texas oil and gas officials who backed Trump begin to grow disenchanted as the president’s tariffs and calls for oil to drop below $50 a barrel threaten their profits. (Houston Chronicle)

• The West Virginia Supreme Court rules that oil and gas producers can’t deduct post-production costs from royalty payments unless those deductions are specifically set out in the lease. (WV News)

• A federal court upholds regulators’ decision to grant the Mountain Valley Pipeline more time to complete its proposed Southgate spur from Virginia into North Carolina. (E&E News)

NUCLEAR

• Two of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s nuclear power plants continued to suffer outages from May into June, contributing to lower power generation. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• Texas lawmakers approve the creation of a $350 million state fund to use taxpayer-funded grants to attract advanced nuclear companies to the state. (Houston Chronicle)

• The U.S. Navy signs an agreement with Dominion Energy to consider building a small modular nuclear reactor at a Virginia base, as well as other alternative energy sources such as a solar farm. (WHRO)

CARBON CAPTURE

• An Arkansas company partners with an ammonia product manufacturer to develop a carbon capture and sequestration initiative, with plans to begin injecting captured carbon by 2027. (Arkansas Business)

EMISSIONS

• The Trump administration terminates a $75,000 grant from the U.S. EPA to monitor air quality in largely Black neighborhoods in Alabama where toxic soil from nearby coking plants was spread as yard fill. (Inside Climate News)

• The Trump administration cancels $150 million in two grants to replace older coke or gas-fueled blast furnaces with electric induction furnaces at two Alabama iron pipe manufacturers. (Inside Climate News)

POLITICS

• A Democratic Louisiana lawmaker leverages his relationships with the state’s GOP-majority legislature and New Orleans Democrats to secure a $34 million package of federal, state, and local funding for a new power station. (Times-Picayune)

CLIMATE

• Texas braces for hurricane season as Houston officials fret about Trump’s evisceration of federal agencies and programs that support disaster recovery in the region. (Houston Chronicle)

• North Carolina advocates worry a worse-than-average hurricane season could overwhelm open-air waste lagoons at hundreds of industrialized hog farms, especially after red tape, delays, and lack of funding have hampered the state’s voluntary swine farm buyout program. (Inside Climate News)

• Texas lawmakers conclude their legislative session without taking any major action to reform the home insurance industry’s rising costs or its pullback from areas where climate change has exacerbated severe weather. (Houston Chronicle)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chicago-area startup Sun Metalon aims to reduce steel industry emissions with an oven-sized box that cleans and melts down waste metal into recyclable pucks, Kari Lydersen reports.

• Springfield, Massachusetts, residents are fighting back after rulings to stop a wood-burning power plant were reversed, Sarah Shemkus reports.

• A handful of Senate Republicans indicate they’ll look to extend the 60-day phaseout of clean energy tax credits proposed in the House’s ​“Big, Beautiful Bill,” Kathryn Krawczyk reports.