Good morning. The data-center boom is turning into a bill-allocation fight: who pays for the wires, which resources get built, and how much risk rides along with the AI gold rush.
Top Stories
CONGRESS LINES UP DATA-CENTER GRID-COST VOTE
E&E News / Politico Pro
The policy fight is moving from complaints to bill text, with lawmakers testing whether hyperscale load should carry more of the grid-expansion bill.
AI BOOM LIFTS STEEL, THEN RUNS INTO THE POWER WALL
Wall Street Journal
Data-center construction is feeding industrial demand, but the same buildout is now competing for the electricity needed to keep factories and servers running.
FERC ORDER BOOSTS MARYLAND DATA-CENTER COST FIGHT
Inside Climate News
Maryland is using federal transmission precedent to argue that ordinary customers should not be stuck with billions in new grid costs driven by data centers.
RENEWABLES PITCH: SERVE NEW LOAD FOR LESS
Latitude Media
The resource-choice argument is getting sharper: the cheapest way to serve new load may also be the one utilities and regulators are still slowest to approve.
AI BOOM GETS A HISTORICAL WARNING LABEL
Axios
The Bank for International Settlements is warning that AI exuberance has familiar financial-cycle risks, which matters when infrastructure bets are already being made at grid scale.
Power & Grid
PJM DEMAND COULD SET RECORDS IN THE HEAT
Maryland Matters
The summer reliability test is arriving while PJM is already under pressure from rising capacity prices, delayed generation and large-load interconnection fights.
MICHIGAN TOWNSHIPS ASK COURT TO RESTORE SITING POWER
Midland Daily News / Hearst
Local-control battles are not just for data centers; renewable siting is still testing how much authority states can centralize when they need new capacity fast.
VIRGINIA OPENS THE DOOR FOR AGRIVOLTAICS
Utility Dive
Solar politics get easier when land can keep producing farm value, and Virginia is trying to write that compromise into the rules.
SUPREME COURT SHIFTS POWER OVER ENERGY AGENCIES
E&E News / Politico Pro
The decision could make independent energy regulators more responsive to the White House, raising the stakes for permitting, markets and infrastructure approvals.
PIPELINE CASE SPLITS CONSERVATIVE LEGAL INSTINCTS
E&E News / Politico Pro
The Supreme Court pipeline fight pits property rights, federal authority and energy infrastructure needs against each other in a way neither party can cleanly box up.
Data Centers
DOE, COLORADO LAWMAKER SAY DATA CENTERS SHOULD PAY UP
CBS News Colorado
The cost-allocation fight is getting a federal megaphone: if data centers trigger new transmission and generation, politicians want a clearer bill sent to the load.
FLORIDA DATA-CENTER DEVELOPERS HIT THE BRAKES
Politico
Community opposition is starting to change developer behavior in growth states, especially where power, water and land-use concerns arrive before the jobs pitch lands.
KENTUCKY GROUPS PUSH UTILITY AFFORDABILITY PROBE
Kentucky Lantern
Ratepayer anxiety is becoming the connective tissue between new load, utility spending and industrial recruitment, even in states not yet at the center of the AI buildout.
IRS MAP UPDATE SHOWS CLEAN-ENERGY CREDIT FALLOUT
Forbes
Tax-credit changes will shape where projects still pencil out, which in turn affects the geography of cheap power for factories, data centers and utilities.
PJM'S 2028 CAPACITY AUCTION OPENS UNDER PRESSURE
Utility Dive
PJM begins its 2028/29 capacity auction today, the first major price test since data-center forecasts drove roughly 45% of recent capacity costs and pushed prices to record highs.
Stat of the Day
$5B
Potential ratepayer savings from serving new load with renewables
The clean-resource path could meet AI-driven demand for billions less than a fossil-heavy buildout, turning resource choice into an affordability question.
Latitude Media ↗