Trump puts pro-wind fishermen in a tight spot

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.

WIND

• A group of more than 100 fishermen and fisherwomen known as Sea Services North America supplement their dwindling income by working for offshore wind farms, but President Donald Trump’s push against wind energy threatens those plans. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• Republicans in Georgia’s state legislature urge the U.S. Senate not to weaken tax credits for solar installations and manufacturing, saying doing so would harm the state’s ​“manufacturing renaissance.” (Axios)

• Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power ask West Virginia regulators to lower the net-metering credit they pay to residential solar customers by 70%, while also pressing for a 16% rate hike. (Mountain State Spotlight)

• Solar developer Silicon Ranch uses sheep to graze vegetation around its Georgia solar farms to keep agricultural land in production even if it’s no longer used to grow row crops like corn and cotton. (Grist/​WABE)

• A North Carolina county lifts its stop-work order on Silfab Solar’s factory after following up on a complaint about employees working on-site even though they​did not have a certificate of occupancy for the building. (WCCB)

STORAGE

• Appalachian Power cancels its plans to build a battery energy storage facility in Virginia, in part because of storm damage from Hurricane Helene. (Cardinal News)

GRID

• Utility-scale solar and battery storage are bolstering Texas’ power grid to the point that it faces the lowest chance of supply emergencies in years, even as demand rapidly grows from data centers, industrial electrification, manufacturing, and population expansion. (Inside Climate News)

• Opponents of a power plant and data center complex proposed for a tourism-dependent West Virginia community call for a show of opposition during a public hearing by state regulators today. (Country Roads News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Louisiana lawyer who won a $745 million verdict against Chevron for damaging wetlands insists he wants the oil and gas industry to thrive and is suing to ensure it’s being environmentally responsible. (Times-Picayune)

• The Tennessee Valley Authority implodes the smokestacks at its Bull Run coal-fired power plant and plans to turn part of the site into its first synchronous condenser operation to help stabilize the grid, and the other part into a nuclear fusion power plant. (Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel)

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill to prevent oil drilling near the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay after state regulators previously issued a draft permit for a company to drill an exploratory well there. (Observer)

• Texas-based Excelerate is in advanced talks with Iraq to develop a ship to facilitate its first-ever liquified natural gas exports as it aims to reduce its energy reliance on Iran. (E&E News)

PIPELINES

• The Mountain Valley Pipeline reaches a settlement with a protester who allegedly chained himself to equipment after he agrees to stay off the pipeline’s property and not interfere with its operations. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

MINING

• A London-based investment firm restarts operations at a Virginia mine and builds a mineral separation plant to produce zircon and other critical minerals. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

UTILITIES

• An investigation shows Texas lawmakers have done little to fulfill their promises to force CenterPoint Energy to refund customers after its lackluster response to Hurricane Beryl led to lengthy outages last year. (Houston Chronicle, Houston Chronicle)

• Kentucky regulators investigate how Big Rivers Electric Corp. granted Nucor an estimated $11 million on its electricity bill in the form of fuel costs, which were instead passed on to ratepayers. (Kentucky Lantern)

CLIMATE

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied homeowners in a flood-prone Virginia community individual assistance to help rebuild because the Federal Emergency Management Agency relies on a formula that wraps in property values from across the state, including much more affluent areas. (Cardinal News)

POLLUTION

• Environmental groups sue a company that operates a factory that makes PET polymers derived from fossil fuels over allegations it illegally discharged a likely carcinogen and contaminated drinking water supplies for 900,000 people. (Inside Climate News)

COMMENTARY

• Texas oil production has remained steady, buoying global energy markets despite conflicts in the Ukraine and the Middle East, writes an editor. (Fort Worth Report)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Will Congress pull the plug on Ohio’s clean energy momentum? By Kathiann M. Kowalski