Today’s headlines: Sunrise Wind builds first turbine, a coal plant owner objects to stay-open orders, 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.

WIND

• The first of 84 planned turbines has been installed at Sunrise Wind, an offshore wind project off the coast of New York. (OffshoreWind.biz)

• TotalEnergies’ CEO defends his firm’s deal with the Trump administration to cancel offshore wind leases: ​“If you have a change in the administration every four years and they change their minds, you invest every four years, you stop, it doesn’t work. I cannot do that.” (Axios)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The DOE ordered the continued operation of an Indiana coal plant unit in March despite objections from plant owner CenterPoint Energy Indiana, whose president said the facility is unreliable and needs costly investments. (E&E News)

• Environmental groups sue the Trump administration over its decision to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from complying with the Endangered Species Act. (Inside Climate News)

GRID

• FERC says it will take action by June to act on the DOE’s October request to set rules for bringing large loads, like data centers, onto the grid. (press release, E&E News)

CLEAN ENERGY

• EU leaders are set to call for an accelerated transition to clean energy as the Iran war drives up oil and gas prices, according to a draft agreement the bloc’s foreign affairs ministers are expected to sign next Tuesday. (E&E News)

• States including California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, and Oregon are expediting large-scale renewable energy projects to help them qualify for federal tax credits before they expire. (Bloomberg)

SOLAR

• Maine is now the state with the highest per capita distributed solar capacity, with growth driven heavily by community solar development, according to a new report. (PV Magazine)

CARBON REMOVAL

• A list submitted to Congress by the DOE indicates the agency will allow the Biden-era Direct Air Capture hub program — which awarded up to $1.2 billion to projects that aim to suck carbon dioxide from the air — to move forward. (Heatmap)

MINING

• The Senate votes 50–49 to lift a mining moratorium on land near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in a victory for a Chilean company that wants to build a copper and nickel mine. (New York Times)

UTILITIES

• An analysis reveals that U.S. utilities turned off customers’ power 13.4 million times in 2024 — a number higher than consumer advocates expected and one that underscores the worsening energy affordability crisis. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Hyundai’s U.S. EV sales jumped 40% between February and March, which the company’s CEO attributes to higher gasoline prices. (InsideEVs)