Good morning. The grid has plenty of proposed answers and almost no spare time. Alabama's data-center pipeline could outdraw every home in the state, PJM has finally cleared 50 GW of new clean power, and a fight over 550 feet of California desert law has become a test of who can stop the AI buildout.
Top Stories
ALABAMA'S DATA-CENTER PIPELINE COULD OUTDRAW EVERY HOME IN THE STATE
WBHM / Inside Climate News
At least a dozen proposed campuses would consume more electricity at full buildout than Alabama's entire residential sector, in a state whose dominant utility already bills the highest residential totals in the nation. Who pays is buried in redacted filings and NDAs signed by public officials, with a state cost-protection law due October 1.
PJM CLEARED 50 GW OF CLEAN POWER. NOW SOMEBODY HAS TO BUILD IT.
Canary Media
Mostly solar, wind and batteries finally hold interconnection approval after years in the queue. But utilities control the upgrades, and the only sizable near-term supply pool could still disappear on paper.
MAHA BREAKS WITH TRUMP OVER COAL-FIRED AI POWER
Associated Press
Nearly 200 activists, including two former RFK Jr. campaign staffers, urged the administration to reject coal for data centers. It is the movement's first major fossil-fuel mobilization and a new fracture inside the president's coalition.
CALIFORNIA'S BIGGEST DATA-CENTER FIGHT MOVES TO COURT
San Francisco Chronicle
A developer is challenging Imperial County's emergency moratorium on a nearly 1-million-square-foot campus. The case tests whether local officials can pause an already moving project amid fights over environmental review and 287 million gallons of annual water demand.
IDAHO POWER SELLS 20,000 OREGON CUSTOMERS FOR $154 MILLION
Oregon Capital Chronicle / OPB
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative projects a 5.7% rate increase after the acquisition. Idaho Power says keeping the customers would require at least 17%, turning an unusual utility-territory sale into a clean consumer-price comparison.
Power & Grid
VIRGINIA COUNTY GETS 31 MILES OF LINE AND ALMOST NO SAY
Cardinal News
Buckingham County has no proposed data center but would host 27% of the Virginia segment of Valley Link, crossing 91 parcels and clearing about 763 acres. Without a substation, the county lacks the zoning leverage held by communities receiving the projects.
PJM WOULD CUT NEW 50-MW LOADS FIRST UNLESS THEY BRING POWER
Forbes
Evidence of qualifying new supply is due March 1, with final verification April 1. Loads that miss those dates enter interim service, receive only half the normal curtailment payment and go first when PJM has a localized shortage.
TRUMP SHUNS EVS AND WIND, THEN POURS BILLIONS INTO BATTERIES
The New York Times
The administration's hostility toward electric vehicles and wind power has not extended to grid storage. Data-center demand and reliability needs are turning batteries into the clean-energy technology Washington is still willing to finance.
ORMAT BETS AI CAN TURN GEOTHERMAL INTO A 500-MW BUSINESS
Fortune
The 60-year-old operator is combining geothermal expertise with horizontal drilling in two Nevada pilots targeted for late 2027. Ormat says individual hyperscaler projects could reach 500 MW if enhanced geothermal finally proves economic at scale.
WISCONSIN'S 190-MILE POWER LINE MOVES INTO THE GOVERNOR'S RACE
Channel 3000
Landowners across nine counties are receiving route notices for the BECI project as both gubernatorial nominees demand a larger local voice. One proposal would push planners toward highway, rail and underground alternatives, but lawmakers split over whether that changes the underlying energy policy.
Data Centers
DATA-CENTER WATER USE JUMPS 86%, BUT VIRGINIA'S TOTAL STILL FALLS
Cardinal News
Data centers reached 2.1 billion gallons a year by 2023 while statewide withdrawals fell 5% through 2024. Coal retirements cut fossil-power withdrawals by 467 million gallons a day, dwarfing the industry's increase and complicating the usual water narrative.
DATA-CENTER FIGHTS ESCALATE INTO THREATS AGAINST LOCAL OFFICIALS
NBC News
Officials from Michigan to Iowa have faced threats as councils vote on moratoriums, annexations and zoning. The backlash has moved beyond packed meetings and election losses into a public-safety problem.
OHIO FAST-TRACKS DATA-CENTER GAS, COMMUNITIES GET THE EMISSIONS
The Columbus Dispatch
A year-old state law is accelerating dedicated generation for campuses that cannot wait on the grid. The shift solves a power-supply problem by opening a new fight over air pollution, public health and who reviews plants built behind the meter.
U.S. NOW USES NEARLY 40% OF GLOBAL DATA-CENTER ELECTRICITY
Forbes
America accounted for almost half of the worldwide increase in data-center electricity consumption last year. The macro view puts the local rate, water and transmission fights in scale: no other country is carrying as much of the physical AI buildout.
THE DATA-CENTER INDUSTRY SOUNDS THE PANIC ALARM
POLITICO
Industry leaders fear local anger over power bills, water and neighborhood impacts is hardening into a political crisis that survives the midterms. A Republican campaign memo calls the sector a toxic brand and warns one lost Ohio race could accelerate the retreat.
Stat of the Day
41%
Share of U.S. projects with signed interconnection agreements that later withdrew
Between 2000 and 2022, four in ten cleared projects never got built, which is the risk hanging over PJM's newly approved queue.
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