Good morning. Illinois pulled its data-center tax breaks this week while Monterey Park banned data centers outright. The buildout is expensive and nobody wants the bill — that fight runs through everything in today's edition. Let's dig in.
Top Stories
PRITZKER PULLS BACK DATA-CENTER TAX BREAKS
NBC News
Illinois is suspending data-center incentives while power bills and AI infrastructure politics keep rising, turning a tax-credit program into a ratepayer signal.
TRUMP PUTS $700 MILLION BEHIND COAL
AP News
The administration is directing nearly $700 million toward coal plants, exports and mine lands as reliability politics pulls older generation back into the conversation.
PJM TRANSMISSION LINE TESTS DATA-CENTER COST PLEDGE
Latitude Media
The $960 million Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line is now a test case for whether regional transmission costs should be socialized when data-center load is driving the build.
BLUE STATES WEAKEN CLIMATE RULES AS RED STATES ADD RENEWABLES
Guardian US
California and New York are softening climate rules while red states, especially Texas, keep adding clean power — a state-level role reversal.
PRIVATE MICROREACTOR REACHES CRITICALITY AT IDAHO LAB
Idaho News / KBOI
Antares Nuclear's Mark-Zero reactor went critical at Idaho National Laboratory, a milestone for privately developed advanced-nuclear testing.
Power & Grid
MISO RESOURCE OUTLOOK IMPROVES
Utility Dive
A new OMS-MISO survey points to expected capacity surpluses over the next five years as planned generation additions outpace forecast demand growth.
OHIO BLOCKED 5.3 GIGAWATTS OF WIND AND SOLAR
Canary Media
Ohio has blocked more than 5.3 GW of wind and solar over a dozen years, just as bills and data-center-driven demand keep climbing.
NEBRASKA APPROVES DISPUTED SANDHILLS POWER LINE
Nebraska Public Media
Regulators approved NPPD's 220-mile R Project transmission line through the Sandhills despite landowner, wildfire, grassland and endangered-species objections.
RENEWABLE DEVELOPERS COOL ON RESTORED TAX CREDITS
E&E News
Some clean-energy companies say they may not want restored wind and solar credits, complicating Democrats' pitch that the industry simply needs old incentives back.
MICHIGAN CLEAN-ENERGY PROJECTS HIT LOCAL RESISTANCE
Bridge Michigan
State siting authority can help projects bypass local vetoes, but community opposition is still making renewable buildout a political and permitting fight.
Data Centers
DATA-CENTER BANS SPREAD FROM CITY HALL
Newsweek
Monterey Park voters approved a sweeping ban on new data centers, giving the backlash a clean local-politics hook for other communities watching the buildout.
AI GROUPS BLAME CHINA-LINKED ACCOUNTS FOR DATA-CENTER PUSHBACK
Axios
Industry groups say China-linked actors are amplifying U.S. data-center opposition online, a claim that pushes siting fights into national-security politics.
DATA-CENTER BACKLASH SCRAMBLES TEXAS PARTY LINES
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Some lifelong Republican opponents of North Texas projects say they could support Democrats who oppose data centers, showing how local fights can cross partisan lines.
AI TECHLASH PUTS BLUE STATES ON DEFENSE
Fortune
AI exposure and data-center backlash are concentrated in Democratic states, making the buildout a political liability as voters focus on bills and land use.
WYOMING WEIGHS DEREGULATED POWER FOR DATA CENTERS
Oil City News
Lawmakers are considering exemptions from public utility regulation for generators serving large industrial loads, including data centers, as Wyoming courts new demand.
Stat of the Day
5.3 GW
Wind and solar Ohio has blocked over the past dozen years
The blocked projects pile up just as data-center demand keeps pushing the state's power needs higher.
Canary Media report ↗