Today's issue is about the politics of load growth. Data centers are pushing TVA toward new rates, putting new numbers around power-bill exposure, and pulling Congress into fights that started in statehouses. At the same time, the broader power stack is shifting: wind and solar just topped gas globally for a month, fusion and advanced nuclear are getting lighter regulatory treatment, and a NextEra-Dominion merger would put the country's largest offshore wind project inside a renewables giant.
Top Stories
HOUSE ENERGY-WATER BILL GETS DATA-CENTER AMENDMENT FIGHT
E&E News / House Appropriations
House appropriators advanced the $58.5 billion fiscal 2027 Energy-Water bill after Democrats pressed amendments on data centers, energy and water use, rising power bills, and grant terminations.
DATA-CENTER DEMAND COULD PUSH SOME POWER BILLS UP 57%
NC State News
New research from NC State, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Toronto finds data-center and crypto-mining demand could raise average U.S. electricity costs 6% to 29% by 2030, with some regions facing increases as high as 57%.
WIND AND SOLAR TOP GAS WORLDWIDE FOR FIRST MONTH
Canary Media
Global wind and solar generated about 532 TWh in April, topping natural gas at 477 TWh for the first monthly crossover in Ember data. The caveat: shoulder-season weather made April unusually favorable for renewables.
NEXTERA-DOMINION DEAL WOULD PUT OFFSHORE WIND UNDER RENEWABLES GIANT
Inside Climate News
NextEra buying Dominion would put the 2,640 MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project under the leading U.S. renewables and battery developer, but analysts doubt that one owner change can revive a sector battered by federal opposition and project delays.
DAKOTA ACCESS WINS FINAL LAKE OAHE EASEMENT
Insurance Journal / Bloomberg
The Army Corps finalized the easement for Dakota Access to keep operating beneath Lake Oahe, adding leak detection and monitoring conditions to a 750,000-barrel-per-day pipeline that has faced years of legal and political challenges.
Power & Grid
FERC COMMISSIONER PUSHES BACK ON BREAKING UP PJM
Utility Dive
FERC Commissioner Judy Chang said she is not thinking about breaking up PJM, framing the issue as a market-design problem as the grid operator absorbs data-center load growth, interconnection delays, supply-chain constraints and limited transmission.
FUSION ENERGY POISED FOR LIGHTER FEDERAL REVIEW
Axios
Federal regulators are preparing a simpler path for fusion energy, treating the technology as fundamentally different from fission and potentially lowering the permitting burden for companies trying to commercialize fusion power.
NRC LICENSING OVERHAUL MOVES INTO HIGH GEAR
POWER Magazine
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is pushing through an unusually large regulatory sprint, including Part 53, a proposed Part 57 for microreactors, 33 active rulemakings, and a new Office of Advanced Reactors.
WRIGHT PERMITTING TALKS STILL SHORT OF A DEAL
E&E News
Energy Secretary Chris Wright met with Republican lawmakers on permitting changes after Senate committee leaders held bipartisan talks, but the negotiations remain stuck short of a clear permitting overhaul.
CINCINNATI PUSHES LANDFILL SOLAR DESPITE LOST FEDERAL FUNDING
WVXU
Cincinnati is moving ahead with a 10 MW solar array on the Center Hill Landfill brownfield after losing a $10 million Solar for All award, turning a contaminated site into a local clean-power project.
Data Centers
TVA PLANS DATA-CENTER RATE CHANGES AS AI LOAD SURGES
Knoxville News Sentinel
TVA told customers it may raise rates for large facilities such as AI-supporting data centers as power demand rises across the South, making the utility another test case for who pays for the next wave of load growth.
BLOOMBERG: MUSK AND BEZOS LOOK TO ORBITAL DATA CENTERS
Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek reports Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are exploring data centers in space, a far-out answer to AI infrastructure constraints on land, power and cooling that would move compute into an already crowded orbital economy.
DATA-CENTER BUILDERS WEIGH EPCM AGAINST DESIGN-BUILD RISK
The National Law Review
Data-center construction contracts are becoming a risk-allocation story, with EPCM offering owner control and flexibility while design-build centralizes accountability for schedule, cost, commissioning and performance.
TEXAS AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER SEEKS RURAL DATA-CENTER PAUSE
CBS19
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is urging a statewide pause on new rural data centers, citing farmland loss, water supply and power-grid concerns.
DATA-CENTER FIGHTS MOVE FROM STATES TO CONGRESS
Michigan Advance
After rate, water and siting fights erupted in statehouses and local communities, data-center politics are moving onto Capitol Hill as lawmakers wrestle with who benefits and who pays for AI infrastructure.
Stat of the Day
33
Active rulemakings underway at the NRC as it overhauls nuclear licensing
POWER Magazine reports the sprint includes Part 53, a proposed Part 57 for microreactors, and a new Office of Advanced Reactors — an unusually large push to clear the way for new builds.
POWER Magazine report ↗