Today’s headlines: NextEra’s ballroom donation, floating wind pushes on, and more

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

• Data centers have rolled past railroads to become the source of the largest investment boom in U.S. history, a Columbia University report finds. (Stateline)

UTILITIES

• NextEra Energy gave $4 million to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom reconstruction project, raising concerns as the utility looks to merge with Dominion Energy. (Washington Post, Utility Dive)

WIND

• The bipartisan Senate permitting bill could protect offshore wind and other energy projects from presidential retribution, but experts and advocates fear it won’t be enough to keep the Trump administration at bay. (Grist)

• The floating offshore wind industry, which has its U.S. roots in Maine, continues to push forward on research despite federal and financial challenges. (Inside Climate News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A House Democrat introduces a bill to block Trump’s deal to buy Russian diesel, with 16 other Democrats and one Republican as cosponsors. (Politico)

• Wisconsin regulators approve Invenergy’s plan to build two gas plants totaling 1.5 GW in capacity to help meet rising demand from data centers, despite pushback from clean energy groups. (Wisconsin Public Radio)

SOLAR

• Generation from U.S. solar projects smaller than 1 MW of capacity has soared from 18,812 GWh to 92,979 from 2016 to the end of 2025. (EIA)

• Connecticut has so far built at least 29 solar arrays on top of closed landfills, and state officials say they plan to keep utilizing undesirable land for clean energy development. (Hartford Courant)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Volvo’s new plug-in hybrid vehicles will have a 79-mile electric range, raising the bar for other automakers. (Bloomberg)

BATTERIES

• Long-duration battery startup Form Energy pushes off its IPO to next year amid weak investor interest. (Axios)

NUCLEAR

• The Nuclear Company also decides against going public as other nuclear companies suffer in the market. (Axios)