Why some Texas Republicans are defending renewables

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WIND

• Some GOP Texas lawmakers are pushing back on President Trump and fellow Republicans’ push to limit landowners’ ability to host solar and wind farms, both because of property rights and because they see revenue from renewables as a lifeline for struggling rural communities. (Guardian)

• Texas lawmakers advance a bill to block offshore wind farms from connecting to the state power grid through state waters. (Houston Chronicle)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Tennessee Valley Authority begins construction of a new gas-fired power plant at the site of a coal plant in Tennessee, with 190 people expected to lose their jobs by the time it transitions from coal to gas in 2027. (Knoxville News Sentinel, WVLT)

• Texas lawmakers approve a bill requiring oil and gas operators to plug wells that have been inactive for at least 15 years, with enforcement set to begin in 2027. (Texas Tribune)

• A Texas county board approves a 10-year tax abatement for a $350 million gas-fired power plant. (KTRE)

• Newport News, Virginia, residents who live near a coal terminal worry about their families’ health after the city fails to obtain a $20 million federal grant it hoped would address those concerns. (WTKR)

UTILITIES

• Georgia’s public interest advocacy staff argue that Georgia Power has overestimated the amount of new capacity it needs to meet growing demand from data centers, but also support the utility’s push to upgrade and continue operating fossil fuel-fired power plants. (Capitol Beat News Service)

PIPELINES

• Williams moves forward with plans to increase horsepower at two North Carolina compressor stations to boost the expansion of its Transco natural gas pipeline network, even though it would increase air pollution by a projected 175 to 350%. (Inside Climate News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• EV bus manufacturer GreenPower Motor Co. lays off employees and announces a pause on production in West Virginia despite a $15 million order to supply 41 buses to school districts in the state. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

• Advocates warn the Trump-endorsed tax-and-spending bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed last week will likely undermine investment in Georgia’s emerging electric vehicle and battery industry. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

GRID

• Texas lawmakers advance legislation giving the state’s grid operator more oversight and the ability to cut power to data centers and other large-scale consumers during an emergency, in hopes of encouraging those customers to develop their own backup power. (Texas Tribune, Austin American-Statesman)

• CenterPoint Energy says it has completed weatherization upgrades in Houston and moved its outage tracker to a cloud-based system after it was knocked offline last year by a derecho that damaged its physical server. (Utility Dive, Houston Chronicle)

• The Tennessee Valley Authority proposes construction of a 19-mile transmission line through three Mississippi counties. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)

• West Virginia residents scramble to obtain information and fight an off-the-grid natural gas power plant to power what could be ​“among the largest data center campuses in the world” near a tourist destination. (West Virginia Watch)

NUCLEAR

• Texas lawmakers approve a bill to create a taxpayer-funded $350 million grant fund to incentivize the development of nuclear power projects. (Dallas Morning News)

OVERSIGHT

• The Georgia Secretary of State will decide today whether a candidate in the Democratic primary election for the state’s Public Service Commission meets residency requirements. (Georgia Recorder)

COMMENTARY

• Trump’s so-called ​“one, big beautiful bill” that’s moving through Congress includes the rollback of clean energy tax credits that would undercut a manufacturing sector filled with high-paying jobs located mostly in Republican areas, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Startup Talusag partners with farming cooperative Landus to produce green ammonia on a modular scale, hoping to create a model that could cut carbon and costs from fertilizer production nationwide, Jeff St. John reports.

• The collapse and bankruptcy of EV battery recycling startup Li-Cycle underscores the battery recycling industry’s challenges, especially as federal support dwindles, Julian Spector reports.