Texas’ lax oversight of gas emissions

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.

FOSSIL FUELS

• An analysis finds Texas regulators largely rubber-stamp permits that allow oil and gas drillers to emit vast amounts of gas, rejecting just 53 flaring and venting applications out of more than 12,000 between 2021 and 2024. (Texas Tribune/​ProPublica/​Inside Climate News)

• Southern West Virginia residents push back against TransGas’s plans to build the largest gas-fueled ammonia plant in the world alongside two onsite power plants that would power a pair of data centers. (West Virginia Watch)

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leads a group of 10 other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit accusing BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street of running ​“an investment cartel” to boost their profits, push down coal production, and increase utility bills. (Inside Climate News)

• Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility announces plans to spend $1.57 billion to build a 675 MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant to replace another unit that will be retired in 2031. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• The head of EV startup Imola Automotive USA announces plans to break ground on a solar-powered factory in Georgia within the next calendar year, but acknowledges the company has been unable to secure land for two more proposed factories in Arkansas and Oklahoma. (Floodlight)

NUCLEAR

• The Tennessee Valley Authority announces plans for ENTRA1 Energy to develop and own six small nuclear power plants developed by NuScale and totaling 6 GW. (Utility Dive)

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is leading a campaign of state and local officials to develop small modular nuclear reactors and fusion technology that can meet surging data center demand. (Virginia Business)

WIND

• The Trump administration cancels $679 million for offshore wind projects on the East Coast, including $39 million to upgrade a port near Norfolk, Virginia. (New York Times)

PIPELINES

• Elected commissioners in Forsyth County, North Carolina, were besieged with hundreds of near-identical messages urging them to support Williams Cos.’s proposal for a 24-mile pipeline to go alongside its existing Transcontinental pipeline, leading to the board to unanimously call on federal officials to deny it a permit. (E&E News)

• ONEOK, WhiteWater, MPLX, and Enbridge announce a 450-mile, 42-inch pipeline to move natural gas from the Permian Basin to the Katy area near Houston. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID

• The Eastern Kentucky Power Cooperative sues Berea College and nearby landowners for land to build a nearly nine-mile long transmission line to a new substation. (Kentucky Lantern)

• The Georgia Department of Community Affairs temporarily allows data centers to stop going through in-depth, regional reviews as it weighs whether to require the facilities to disclose information about their resource requirements to planning authorities. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• CenterPoint Energy gears up to accommodate Taiwanese tech manufacturer Foxconn’s power needs to develop AI for Apple and Nvidia in Houston, but details still remain sparse. (Houston Chronicle)

UTILITIES

• An investigation finds 49 people who testified in favor of Florida Power & Light’s rate hike have connections to the utility in some way, ranging from receiving direct payments to having an employee on their board, while eight more were former employees who didn’t disclose their affiliation. (Tampa Bay Times)

• Two Tennessee activists plan events to spotlight opposition to the Trump administration’s potential privatization of the Tennessee Valley Authority. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

COMMENTARY

• Dominion Energy should build on the state legislature’s instruction for it to develop a ​“virtual power plant” and develop a widespread network of rooftop-solar-plus-batteries that can boost the grid and reduce outages during emergencies, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

• Sage Geosystems prepares a new technology that uses oil and gas workers to drill fracking wells, and then store the geologic energy in a way that can deliver round-the-clock power when it’s needed, writes a columnist. (Houston Chronicle)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Video: Bill McKibben on the tremendous rise of renewable power

• ‘It’s madness’: Trump-voting fishermen oppose Revolution Wind halt — Clare Fieseler

• Halting Revolution Wind could be a disaster for New England’s grid — Jeff St. John

• San Francisco launched a hydrogen ferry. Now NYC may get one too. — Maria Gallucci

• The incoherence of Trump’s​‘energy emergency’ — Kathryn Krawczyk

• This campaign will help you go electric before federal tax credits end — Alison F. Takemura