Texas to probe two solar companies for alleged China ties

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.

SOLAR

• Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announces state lawmakers will investigate Ontario-based Canadian Solar and Austin-based T1 Energy — both of which have invested in Texas solar manufacturing and infrastructure — after Fox News alleges they have ties to corporations in China. (Houston Chronicle, Fox News)

• Automaker Kia partners with VPS to install a 13 MW solar system at its Georgia factory. (Valdosta Today, news release)

TRANSITION

• West Virginia-based nonprofit Coalfield Development struggles to help replace more than $900 million in federal grants that were passed under the Biden administration to fund community regeneration efforts in former coal communities, but were subsequently scrapped by Trump. (Guardian)

POLITICS

• Democrats consider how to leverage rising anxiety over rising power costs and the booming data center sector in the 2026 midterm elections after seeing electoral success with the issue in this year’s elections in Virginia and Georgia. (New York Times)

PIPELINES

• Environmental groups file a protest against the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposed Southgate spur from Virginia into North Carolina, arguing that a new report shows its potential customers can meet their natural gas needs without it. (Danville Register & Bee)

• Reports by Virginia and federal agencies find little long-term impact from construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, even though regulators cited the project hundreds of times for environmental violations. (Roanoke Times)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Trump administration’s plans to open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling drives concern in Florida about the possibility of a large spill such as BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. (Miami Herald)

• Worker safety advocates sound the alarm after federal officials and the coal mining industry request to indefinitely suspend activities in an ongoing lawsuit over a stalled rule to reduce coal miners’ exposure to silica dust while the U.S. Department of Labor reconsiders parts of the rule. (news release)

• Arkansas regulators consider whether to cap 22 oil and gas wells, including 19 owned by a company still operating in the state. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

GRID

• PJM Interconnection’s market monitor urges federal officials to instruct the grid operator to only add large data centers that it can reliably serve, amid a larger debate over how to handle growing demand and escalating prices. (Utility Dive, Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES

• Staff members at Georgia’s Public Service Commission testify that Georgia Power is overestimating power demand and that its proposed power plant buildout could increase bills for years to come. (WSB)

• Power demand for data centers is driving merger and acquisition deals in Texas as the state saw $106.5 billion in activity over the first three quarters of the year so far, compared to $3.7 billion in 2021. (Dallas Morning News)

• Alabama Power delays its request for a rate hike over its $622 million purchase of a gas-fired power plant earlier this year because of a public outcry against rising bills. (Inside Climate News)

EFFICIENCY

• As Democrats prepare to take full control of Virginia’s government, lawmakers file bills to lower costs by requiring utilities to make energy improvements and to create a task force to study barriers to efficiency programs. (Virginian-Pilot)

EMISSIONS

• Texas researchers find 90% of the nearly 100 proposed industrial, largely petrochemical facilities are located in counties with higher concentrations of poor and minority residents, and nearly half are proposed in places already above the 90th percentile for pollution exposure. (Inside Climate News)

• Virginia regulators propose allowing data centers to run on ​“Tier 2” generators with dirtier emissions if they’re given less than two weeks’ notice of a planned power outage that would affect them. (Prince William Times)

• An analysis by North Carolina regulators shows the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind the U.S. EPA’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions harm human health and the environment could significantly increase levels of air pollutants from vehicles in the state. (Inside Climate News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Georgia awards $24.4 million in federal funding to build and maintain 26 new electric vehicle charging stations, with four chargers at each site. (Capitol Beat News Service)

CLIMATE

• An analysis finds developers have built on more than 65,000 properties in official flood zones in the five largest counties in Houston since Hurricane Harvey in 2017. (Houston Chronicle)

COMMENTARY

• A database tracking local approvals for solar projects in Virginia showed falling approvals and increased rejections from 2022 to 2024, but a growing number of megawatts approved for the first nine months of this year, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Can the war on coal still be won? — Michael Grunwald

• Hundreds of low-income Illinois families are going electric — for free — Kari Lydersen

• Chart: Solar and wind are meeting — and exceeding — new power demand — Dan McCarthy

• Some gas stations are revamping to attract EV drivers with time to kill — Benton Graham