Today’s headlines: Power plant emissions rules eradicated, Dems roll out a climate agenda, 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.

CLIMATE

• The EPA officially repeals rules targeting greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants, and will move to prevent future administrations from reinstating the rule or otherwise regulating power plant emissions. (Associated Press)

• The EPA’s move could complicate the Trump administration’s bid to get the Supreme Court to stop lawsuits looking to hold oil companies responsible for climate change. (Politico)

• A group of House Democrats propose a collection of policies to tackle rising power demand, AI’s energy impacts, and other climate and energy challenges, with the far-fetched hope of gathering bipartisan support for their plans. (Heatmap)

UTILITIES

• NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy are proposing new jobs, more workforce development funds, and doubled residential bill credits as they seek support for their planned merger. (Associated Press)

• Power and utility company mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. reached a record $205 billion during the first half of 2026, led by the NextEra and Dominion deal. (Deloitte)

DATA CENTERS

• The U.S. will need to build 45 GW of new power generation to meet growing data center demand through 2030, at a cost of about $110 billion, a new Moody’s analysis estimates. (Bloomberg)

• Texas startup TAR raises $120 million to build off-grid power — most of it renewables — to run data centers. (Latitude Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• New York City partners with startup It’s Electric to build hundreds of curbside charging stations by 2030. (Heatmap)

NUCLEAR

• Investors have bet more than $14 billion on nuclear fusion, but companies still need to prove that the idea is more than a very expensive science experiment. (Bloomberg)