Virginia’s carbon market status uncertain as parties spat over funding

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POLITICS

• Virginia lawmakers and the governor disagree on how to use $102 million in payments from a regional carbon market and whether to rejoin the group. (Inside Climate News)

• Environmentalists, health officials and lawmakers push back on legislation backed by the governor that would scrap Puerto Rico’s renewable energy goals and extend the life of a coal-fired power plant. (Associated Press)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Texas pipeline company enters a long-term agreement to provide up to 1.2 GW of power to a data center company for at least a decade, beginning with a Texas project. (Reuters)

• Exxon Mobil projects its new acquisitions in the Permian Basin will enable it to increase oil and gas production up to 50% by 2030. (Houston Chronicle)

• Texas’ grid operator presses a utility to keep a gas-fired power plant running even though it had been slated for retirement and its cost continues to climb well above previous estimates. (Houston Chronicle)

• A regional clean energy group opposes Duke Energy’s plans to build a gas-fired power plant across from an elementary school in North Carolina. (news release)

• North Carolina gas customers shift from Dominion Energy to Enbridge after the utility sells off its gas service. (WCNC)

SOLAR

• An Alabama city considers applying for a $250,000 grant to develop solar projects. (Birmingham Watch)

• A Virginia sheep farmer partners with Dominion Energy to reduce vegetation around a solar farm. (WDBJ)

GRID

• Clean energy and consumer advocacy groups try to block Alabama Power’s purchase of a 895-MW gas- and oil-fired power plant because they argue it will harm competition. (Utility Dive)

• A consultant studies the potential to move power lines underground in Austin, Texas, as a precaution against storms. (KXAN)

• Oklahoma farmers and landowners organize to push back against a proposed 375-mile transmission line to link a wind farm to a substation. (StateImpact Oklahoma)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

The Trump administration’s block on electric vehicle charger funding is felt in Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia. (WBRZ, WRAL, Axios)

NUCLEAR

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee proposes $72.6 million for nuclear energy development in a speech to state lawmakers. (Tennessean)

HYDROGEN

A Texas hydrogen startup announces it will lay off more than half its staff in response to the Trump administration’s clean energy rollbacks. (Houston Chronicle)

UTILITIES

• The Tennessee Valley Authority looks to reduce its workforce with a voluntary buyout program that’s separate from the Trump administration’s effort to reduce the number of federal employees. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

• Georgia Power’s CEO discusses grid improvements and the mix of nuclear, fossil fuels and renewables among the utility’s power sources. (Albany Herald)

COMMENTARY

Ford should endorse the unionization of its jointly owned electric vehicle battery plants in Kentucky to boost the middle class and fulfill the promise of the EV transition, writes an analyst at a regional think tank. (Louisville Courier Journal)