Texas nuclear project gets key approval

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.

NUCLEAR

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a key environmental review for Amazon-backed startup X-energy’s plan to build four 80-MW Xe-100 reactors in Texas. (Canary Media)

UTILITIES

• The proposed merger of NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy would create a mega-utility with a more than 130-GW large-load pipeline of projects and a rate base of $138 billion. (E&E News, Utility Dive, Virginia Mercury)

• Consumer advocates say the merger of NextEra and Dominion Energy is likely to be bad news for consumers and the environment, and will instead benefit the companies’ plans to serve more data centers. (Inside Climate News)

• The proposed merger still has to collect an array of federal approvals, but may face its strongest scrutiny in Virginia, where Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has promised to rein in rising power prices stemming from the data center buildout. (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• South Carolina regulators approve a $5 billion, 2.2 GW gas-fired power plant to be jointly built by Dominion Energy and state-owned utility Santee Cooper at a former coal plant. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

COAL ASH

• A federal appeals court overturns a lower court and allows an environmental group’s lawsuit to proceed against Alabama Power’s plan to leave 21.7 million tons of coal ash sitting in an ecologically sensitive area near a coal plant. (Inside Climate News)

STORAGE

• OCI Energy — a subsidiary of a company known for making polysilicon for solar panels — partners with San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility to break ground on a battery storage project with an output capacity of 120 MW and a storage capacity of 480 MWh. (Korea Times, news release)

• A Florida entrepreneur’s promises to build a headquarters and factory for Paradigm Energy and Storage in North Carolina appear to be falling through even after county officials gifted the company an 85-acre parcel, as the company has defaulted on its agreement, owes unpaid property taxes, and sold a piece of the land. (Carolina Public Press)

GRID

• Ten historic preservation and environmental groups oppose a 115-mile, 765 kV transmission line across nine Virginia counties that would support a large concentration of data centers in Dominion Energy’s territory. (Virginia Mercury)

DATA CENTERS

• Officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, suggest the reason a nearby town has fought their attempts to access its groundwater to help alleviate a water crisis is because it wants to use those supplies to attract a data center complex. (Inside Climate News/​Texas Newsroom)

• A Texas county board votes to approve a one-year pause on construction of new data centers in certain areas, which appears to make it the first Texas county to block the growing industry over concerns about public safety and public health. (Houston Chronicle)

• A Tennessee county board considers a proposal to require all data centers with a capacity of more than 10 MW to obtain special permission from a planning commission. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

• A $100 billion Virginia data center project that would be one of the largest industrial announcements in the U.S. could fall through if state lawmakers remove a key tax exemption as part of their budget negotiations. (Danville Register & Bee, Cardinal News)

• Metal fabrication and manufacturing firm Unified Legacy announces plans to build a $125 million factory in Georgia to supply parts for data centers and other industries. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

OVERSIGHT

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott campaigns for the Republican incumbent on a state board that oversees the fossil fuel industry, arguing the far-right primary challenger ​“doesn’t know anything about oil and gas.” (Houston Chronicle)

HYDROELECTRIC

• Despite drought conditions, the Tennessee Valley Authority says its lakes and hydroelectric dams along the Tennessee River system are ready for the summer recreation season. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)