Good morning. The guardrails are going up faster than the server racks. Pennsylvania imposed its toughest data-center rules yet, Georgia opened a legal fight over off-grid gas power, and Republicans are warning AI companies that the backlash is becoming an election problem.
Top Stories
SHAPIRO TURNS AGAINST DATA CENTERS WITH SWEEPING ORDER
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Every project lost access to fast-track permitting and must secure local approval, bring its own generation and cover added energy costs. More than 100 speculative projects have surfaced statewide, six are under construction and state agencies may no longer sign data-center NDAs.
GEORGIA OPENS LEGAL FIGHT OVER DATA CENTER'S 33-ENGINE POWER PLANT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regulators will hold hearings on whether VoltaGrid may run 33 gas engines around the clock beside Serverfarm's Covington campus without violating territorial-service and distributed-generation laws. Environmental officials had already halted allegedly unpermitted construction.
THE REAL ENERGY WARNING IS HIDING BELOW HIGH OIL PRICES
CNN
Refinery constraints and disruptions affecting Middle Eastern, Chinese and Russian supply are keeping gasoline, diesel and jet fuel elevated. Demand destruction has not restored balance, and analysts warn diesel could remain near cycle highs into winter.
NEW ENGLAND MOVES TO SCRUTINIZE $5 BILLION IN UTILITY GRID WORK
Utility Dive
ISO-NE asked FERC to approve independent review of utility-selected transmission replacements, which make up 73% of owners' annual capital projects. The advisory process would test need and cost-effectiveness before states confront cost recovery.
CAISO'S NEW DAY-AHEAD MARKET HAS A MATH PROBLEM
Utility Dive
CPUC staff cannot reproduce CAISO's unexplained 592.5-MW and 3,590-MW load adjustments. Six California cities also question whether $11.38 million in first-two-month gross benefits justify the market's heavy resource commitments.
Power & Grid
TEXAS FOR-PROFIT UTILITIES CUT OFF CUSTOMERS AT TRIPLE THE RATE
The Dallas Morning News
EIA data show investor-owned utilities disconnect residential customers for nonpayment at roughly three times the municipal and cooperative rate. Texas ranked second nationally, with 23% of households disconnected at some point in 2024.
DOMINION-NEXTERA DEAL PUTS VIRGINIA ROOFTOP SOLAR ON EDGE
WHRO
Both sides of the $67 billion merger have tried to reduce net-metering benefits. Virginia regulators recently blocked Dominion from cutting customer credits by nearly one-third, while NextEra's Florida utility has backed fees and restrictions on small solar systems.
KAIROS BUILDS THE WORKFORCE BEHIND GOOGLE'S NUCLEAR BET
Knoxville News Sentinel
The Oak Ridge-based NuCAMP consortium will train workers and qualify precast concrete, additive manufacturing and advanced welding for new reactors. Kairos' 50-MW Hermes 2 project is planned to supply TVA power for Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
NUCLEAR PLANTS GET AN AI ASSISTANT TRAINED ON 53 MILLION NRC PAGES
Axios
Atomic Canyon launched NIVA with Nvidia backing and input from INPO, EPRI and NEI. Its nuclear-specific models search operating records with source citations and reportedly outperform general-purpose AI by 40% on industry tasks.
WISCONSIN'S 190-MILE GRID BACKBONE MEETS THE LANDOWNERS
WMTV
The proposed 765-kV BECI line is meant to prevent MISO overloads projected as early as 2036, but farm families are already organizing against it. No route is final, and the developer has not yet filed with Wisconsin regulators.
Data Centers
GOP WARNS AI COMPANIES THAT DATA CENTERS ARE LOSING OHIO
Axios
The Senate Republican campaign arm privately warned leading AI companies that hostility toward data centers is damaging the party's chances of holding a pivotal Senate seat. The backlash has moved from a permitting risk to a national election problem.
AEP OHIO AND FIVE DATA CENTERS PUT $18 MILLION TOWARD BILL RELIEF
The Columbus Dispatch
Meta, QTS, Amazon, SoftBank Energy and Google joined AEP Ohio to fund grants for customers facing shutoffs and energy-efficiency work for low-income homes. The pledges arrive as regulators try to keep data-center growth from raising household bills.
BIG TECH WRITES CHECKS TO CALM THE AI BACKLASH
The Wall Street Journal
Technology companies are using listening sessions, job guarantees and direct community spending to rebuild support for AI infrastructure. The response shows that local consent is becoming as important to development schedules as land, chips and electricity.
PUBLIC OPPOSITION BECOMES AI'S CLEAREST NEAR-TERM THREAT
Axios
Forget chips and competition with China: rapidly hardening resistance to data centers may be the AI constraint that arrives first. Local fights are scaling into state and national political risk.
NEBRASKA PUTS UTILITIES AND DEVELOPERS ON DATA-CENTER TASK FORCE
Nebraska Public Media
Gov. Jim Pillen named 17 power, water, construction and local-government leaders to shape zoning and policy for future projects. The move follows his July suspension of state tax incentives after opposition spread across more than a dozen counties.
Stat of the Day
76%
Pennsylvania voters who oppose a data center in their community
Only 24% approve of Gov. Josh Shapiro's handling of the issue, helping drive his shift from courting Amazon to imposing statewide guardrails.
The Philadelphia Inquirer ↗