Good morning. The wires are crossed in useful ways today: offshore wind money is moving, Texas transmission is slowing, energy-security politics are back on the table, and AI load keeps showing up in places that did not ask for it. The throughline: who pays, and who gets paid.
Top Stories
TRUMP PAYS $765M TO KILL INVENERGY WIND LEASES
Los Angeles Times
The Interior Department agreed to refund what Invenergy paid for four offshore wind leases, with the company redirecting the capital into Midwest gas plants and Western geothermal.
NEXTERA PAYS $150M TO SETTLE POLITICAL MISCONDUCT CLAIMS
Utility Dive
The settlement lands about a month after NextEra proposed a $67 billion Dominion merger, keeping utility politics in the deal's shadow.
TEXAS SLOWS TRANSMISSION REVIEW AS LANDOWNERS PUSH BACK
E&E News
Regulators delayed a vote on a major power-line project after ranchers and rural landowners lined up against large utilities.
IRAN WAR SCRAMBLES CLEAN ENERGY AND FOSSIL FUEL POLITICS
POLITICO
The conflict is strengthening arguments for domestic fossil production and clean-energy independence at the same time.
ARIZONA BECOMES AI'S POWER-AND-WATER TEST CASE
Axios
Phoenix-area data-center growth is turning Arizona into a live stress test for AI power demand, heat and scarce water.
Power & Grid
WESTERN WASHINGTON BATTERY FARMS HIT LOCAL RESISTANCE
Washington State Standard
Storage projects are drawing community opposition just as batteries become more important for clean-energy targets and grid stability.
SOLAR INDUSTRY SPLITS OVER TAX-CREDIT FIGHT
E&E News
Some renewable leaders question whether expiring credits are still needed while domestic solar manufacturers point back to China's supply-chain edge.
SOLAR'S NEW PITCH IS ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
TIME
Solar, storage and EV advocates are leaning into energy-security arguments as oil-market anxiety returns.
SENATE PANEL ADVANCES STATE DEPARTMENT ENERGY OFFICE
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Energy Security Pacts Act would create a State Department office for long-term energy, electricity and critical-mineral deals with partner countries.
MONGOLIA COPPER PROTESTS HIT RENEWABLE SUPPLY CHAIN
Associated Press
Protesters disrupted exports from Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine, adding a critical-minerals supply-chain angle for grid and clean-energy buildout.
Data Centers
PANASONIC SHIFTS KANSAS BATTERY LINES TO AI DATA CENTERS
Kansas Reflector
The De Soto plant is moving some production from EV batteries toward data-center batteries, a concrete signal that AI load is reshaping the clean-tech supply chain.
PENNSYLVANIA TIES DATA-CENTER TAX BREAKS TO GRID RULES
PennLive
House bills would add grid storage, clean-energy interconnection and tax-credit conditions as data-center development accelerates.
HIGH-SPEED RAIL CORRIDOR COULD BECOME DATA-CENTER VALLEY
San Francisco Chronicle
California's rail corridor could help shape a Central Valley data-center belt where land, fiber, power and transportation routes overlap.
SILICON VALLEY TESTS A QUIETER 2028 PITCH
POLITICO
Tech donors and political operators are trying to shape the 2028 cycle without making AI and Silicon Valley the face of the pitch.
OPEN MODELS THREATEN BIG TECH'S DATA-CENTER BET
Forbes
Cheaper Chinese open models could pressure the economics behind hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending.
Stat of the Day
$2.5B
Total the administration has paid to cancel offshore wind leases
The Invenergy deal is the third settlement of its kind, extending a pattern of paying developers to drop offshore wind and shift capital into gas and geothermal.
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