Trump’s coal order could actually reduce grid reliability

GRID

• Trump’s order to keep coal plants open could violate carbon and environmental mandates, raise energy costs, and threaten grid reliability if utilities lean on the fossil fuel instead of building renewables and other clean energy, experts say. (Canary Media)

• Residents of a southern Virginia county gear up for a protracted fight against a company that wants to build a 3,500 MW gas-fired power plant and accompanying 12-building data center campus. (Cardinal News)

• LS Power seeks federal approval for its plans to sell up to 300 MW from a Virginia gas-fired power plant to a behind-the-meter data center. (Utility Dive)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Trump’s seesawing approach to tariffs increases uncertainty for oil and gas companies that already were looking to renegotiate contracts with likely customers for a wave of planned liquified natural gas export terminals on the Gulf Coast. (Houston Chronicle)

• West Virginia regulators order coal company Core Natural Resources to temporarily stop working a coal mine while officials investigate an explosion that was caused when a woman smoking a lit cigarette apparently ignited methane escaping from the mine. (Inside Climate News)

• Federal officials authorize exports to non-free-trade-agreement countries for Louisiana liquefied natural gas terminal Calcasieu Pass 2, moving the massive $28 billion project a step closer to completion. (Sierra)

• Advocates warn the Trump administration’s job cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health will endanger coal miners in West Virginia and beyond. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

UTILITIES

• South Carolina state-owned utility Santee Cooper shifts to mandate time-of-use plans that charge customers more during times of high power demand. (Post and Courier)

• Texas lawmakers push to resurrect a program that collects a surcharge from utility ratepayers to spend on helping low-income families pay their power bills. (Houston Chronicle)

• A Virginia city council considers whether to use revenue from a casino for a fund to help residents avoid utility cutoffs or to restore disconnected services. (Cardinal News)

SOLAR

• An energy company begins commercial operations at a 600 MW solar farm in Texas. (Power Technology)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A Florida anti-tax group’s report estimates hybrid and electric vehicles already cost the state up to $78.3 million annually in lost gas tax revenues. (Florida Politics)

COMMENTARY

• Texas legislation could undermine the state’s wind, solar, and battery boom by pushing investment elsewhere, raising energy costs and threatening grid reliability while also imposing top-down control on the state’s deregulated power market, writes the Texas vice president of the Advanced Power Alliance. (Austin American-Statesman)

• Louisiana should spurn the use of carbon sequestration because it might block access to oil and gas beneath storage sites, writes a state lawmaker. (Times-Picayune)