Trump’s war on efficiency

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.

POLITICS

• China and the U.S. agree to significantly reduce tariffs on one another for 90 days, easing a tense trade war that has already driven up costs for domestic manufacturers of batteries, solar panels, EVs, and other cleantech and cast deep uncertainty over the entire economy. (CNBC)

• Despite rhetoric about unleashing dometic energy, the U.S. energy sector is faltering under Trump’s policies, with everyone from fracking firms to renewables developers struggling. (Washington Post)

LITIGATION

• California, Illinois, and Massachusetts are among 15 states suing the Trump administration over its executive order declaring an ​“energy emergency,” arguing that no such crisis exists and the declaration is prodding federal agencies to unlawfully skip over proper environmental protections. (New York Times)

• Lawsuits by the Trump administration, business groups, and a coalition of red states against Vermont’s law asking fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damages could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, a legal expert says. (Vermont Public)

OFFSHORE WIND

• Equinor says it will abandon its Empire Wind project off the coast of New York if the Trump administration doesn’t lift its stop-work order. (E&E News)

SOLAR

• The National Park Service writes a letter opposing the siting of a 100 MW solar farm near Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky over concerns about whether it would affect an endangered shrimp, although the opposition may be indicative of a broader Trump administration policy shift against solar. (Heatmap)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Startup Factorial Energy makes progress in its quest to develop a solid-state EV battery that would charge faster, weigh less, and increase range, though technological hurdles remain. (New York Times)

CLIMATE

• New York’s new budget includes a $1 billion ​“climate action fund” intended to support thermal energy networks, electric school buses, renewable power, and other projects, though climate advocates note that far more could be invested if the state implemented its delayed cap-and-invest program to put a price on carbon emissions. (New York Focus)

• The Trump administration directs federal agencies to stop accounting for the economic damages caused by climate change unless they are ​“plainly required” to do so. (New York Times)

HEAVY INDUSTRY

• Major steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs plans to substantially scale back plans to use hydrogen to make steel at an Ohio plant to better align with the Trump administration’s energy priorities. (E&E News)

DATA CENTERS

• Elon Musk’s xAI wants to add dozens more gas turbines to its Memphis, Tennessee data center operation, which already faces scrutiny for its use of 35 turbines that lack Clean Air Act permits or pollution controls. (E&E News)

GRID

• Southwest Power Pool will file a proposal with federal regulators this month on plans to speed up its interconnection process and bring new generation online faster. (Utility Dive)

• Washington and Oregon officials say a lack of transmission capacity and long Bonneville Power Administration grid interconnection times have stifled efforts to decarbonize the power sector and slowed clean energy development. (OPB/​ProPublica)

EMISSIONS

• The Environmental Defense Fund releases the U.S. EPA’s annual accounting of greenhouse gas emissions, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, after the agency refused to make its results public. (E&E News)