Virginia regulators diss Dominion plan, approve it anyway

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UTILITIES

• Virginia regulators take a nuanced stance on Dominion Energy’s ​“legally sufficient” long-range plan, accepting its proposal for new fossil-fueled power plants but ordering the utility to expand the timeframe of the plans to span 20 years and to include a scenario to shutter all its fossil fuel plans by 2045 to comply with state law. (Canary Media)

• Georgia regulators uphold Georgia Power’s use of ​“trade secret” designations to shield information about cost, power generation, and transmission from the public, but signal they might consider changing what can be hidden. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• West Virginia regulators hear ​“a growing groundswell of anger” about Appalachian Power’s request for a rate hike, which is driven in part by coal plants that operate less than half the time and lose money when they do. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

SOLAR

• Georgia solar installers brace for a business slowdown once longstanding residential solar tax credits expire at the end of 2025 due to rollbacks in the Republican budget bill. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Trump administration expedites permits for a new Tennessee coal mine despite a wave of bankruptcies in the industry that has seen companies walk away without properly remediating mineland. (Grist)

• Chesapeake, Virginia’s city council reverses course and approves rezoning to accommodate Virginia Natural Gas’s request to build a compressor station after previously denying it at the behest of residents. (Virginian-Pilot)

• Environmental groups sound the alarm about plans to use new underground storage sites for natural gas as production outpaces available storage sites. (E&E News)

• The Kentucky Coal Association names a new president and CEO. (news release)

EMISSIONS

• Environmental justice groups appeal a Memphis, Tennessee-area health regulator’s decision to issue a Clean Air Act permit for Elon Musk’s xAI datacenter operation that has been running dozens of unpermitted polluting gas turbines for months. (Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announces a $197,500 grant to search for additional funding to prepare for an advanced nuclear reactor in southwestern Virginia. (Virginia Mercury)

OVERSIGHT

• Texas forms a bipartisan disaster preparedness and flooding committee of state lawmakers to meet residents and find solutions after devastating flooding over the July Fourth weekend. (Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle)

GRID

• Appalachian Power proposes a plan to spend $135 million over three years to improve grid reliability as the first phase of a large upgrade process. (Cardinal News)

• Officials from Dependable Power First Kentucky and America’s Power present a report crediting Kentucky’s relatively low retail power rate to the state’s reliance on coal and its regulated utility structure. (Owensboro Times)

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin directs state government to lean in on artificial intelligence despite residents’ complaints about the proliferation of data centers and their energy intensiveness. (Inside Climate News)

CLIMATE

• Louisiana officials cancel the state’s $3 billion coastal restoration program that’s been funded by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, which means it could lose out on more than $1.5 billion in unspent funds or even have to repay the $618 million it used to begin building. (Associated Press)

• North Carolina joins nearly 20 other states in suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency for terminating hundreds of flood mitigation grants, including for a North Carolina town whose wastewater treatment plant was swamped during Tropical Depression Chantal last week. (WFAE, Inside Climate News)