Suing over solar fees

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.

DATA CENTERS

• Google agrees to buy electricity from a yet-to-be-built 400 MW gas plant in Illinois, which will be equipped with carbon capture and storage, to power its growing data center footprint. (Reuters)

• A new AP-NORC poll finds about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they’re ​“extremely” or ​“very” concerned about AI’s environmental impacts — more than the percentage worried about the impacts of cryptocurrency, meat production, and air travel. (Associated Press)

POLITICS

• The U.S. sanctions Russia’s two largest oil companies in an attempt to pressure Russia to end its war against Ukraine. (The Guardian)

• The U.S. and Qatar jointly push the EU to roll back climate and human rights rules that are restricting liquefied natural gas imports. (The Guardian)

• Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse threatens to oppose bipartisan permitting reform legislation if the Trump administration continues to tank clean energy development. (E&E News)

GRID

• The president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. says the power grid is facing a ​“five-alarm fire when it comes to reliability” in the face of extreme weather, shrinking resource adequacy, and other factors. (Utility Dive)

• Two studies aimed at speeding up clean energy construction prepare for a potential loss of federal funding, which they say could jeopardize efforts to quickly bring more power online. (Latitude Media)

STORAGE

• Battery recycling firm Redwood Materials raises $350 million to expand its energy storage business and its mineral refining and production capacity. (TechCrunch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Tesla sets a quarterly vehicle delivery record as Americans rushed to take advantage of expiring EV tax credits, and saw a revenue increase as well, but its profit still fell by 37%. (CNBC)

NUCLEAR

• China has a clear head start on the U.S. as they race to lead nuclear power exports, as China has figured out how to produce reactors cheaply and quickly while the U.S.’s last reactor built went billions of dollars over budget. (New York Times)

SOLAR

• Research group Permit Power outlines policies states can adopt to ease solar permitting costs, and which could rooftop solar accessible to as many as 18 million more U.S. households. (Heatmap)

UTILITIES

• President Trump’s four nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board say they won’t move to privatize the federal utility, but none would commit to its net-zero-by-2050 target. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, E&E News)

EMISSIONS

• The United Nations says governments and oil and gas companies are ignoring nearly 90% of methane leaks that the International Methane Emissions Observatory has flagged for them. (Reuters)

• National and Gulf Coast-area environmental groups sue the Trump administration over its move to exempt chemical manufacturing plants from stricter EPA rules governing cancer-causing air pollution. (Inside Climate News)