THE DAILY MINE ⛏️

IRAN WAR DOMINATES CERAWEEK IN HOUSTON
The National News

Iranian missiles struck Qatar's Ras Laffan gas complex, knocking out 17% of the country's LNG export capacity with repairs expected to take five years. Energy's "Super Bowl" is now a war room.

TESLA EYES $2.9B CHINESE SOLAR EQUIPMENT
Reuters

Musk wants 100 GW of solar manufacturing on American soil by 2028, but the machines to build it still come from China and need Beijing's export approval. Reshoring has a supply chain problem.

IRAN WAR EXPOSES FOSSIL FUEL FRAGILITY
AP News

Over 90% of new renewable projects worldwide are now cheaper than fossil alternatives. Countries with more renewables are more insulated from the Hormuz shutdown. The math is no longer theoretical.

DOE HAS ISSUED 40 EMERGENCY FOSSIL ORDERS
Power Magazine

More Section 202(c) orders in 10 months than in the prior two decades combined, and every one is a land mine for utilities trying to plan generation portfolios past 2030.

COLORADO FILES FIRST CHALLENGE TO COAL ORDER
RTO Insider

Colorado's attorney general and environmental groups are moving to block the Craig Station emergency order. A favorable ruling could unravel the DOE's entire 202(c) strategy.

MAGA WARMS TO SOLAR AS WIND TAKES HEAT
New Republic

Kellyanne Conway polling, Katie Miller tweeting, and Interior reviewing 20 solar permits. A confidential clean energy lobby memo shows the strategy behind the GOP's sudden solar conversion.

GOOGLE HITS 1 GW OF DEMAND RESPONSE
Data Center Dynamics

A gigawatt of flexible load from a single hyperscaler is the number grid operators have been asking for since AI demand projections first started landing.

GRID EFFICIENCY COULD SAVE CUSTOMERS $110B
Latitude Media

A Brattle Group report finds idle grid capacity unlocked through DERs and flexible loads could cut $110 billion from national customer bills. Data center demand response is a key part of that math.

FERVO GEOTHERMAL SECURES $421M FINANCING
Utility Dive

Barclays and HSBC backing Cape Station in Utah is the bankability test enhanced geothermal needed. If this deal structure replicates, it becomes a credible baseload option for hyperscaler PPAs.

FERC APPROVES NEW NERC CYBER STANDARDS
RTO Insider

The CIP updates modernize grid security standards and enable new technologies. A unanimous vote means no dissent on record, which speeds implementation across the bulk electric system.

OHIO HOUSE CREATES DC TAX STUDY GROUP
Ohio Capital Journal

Instead of voting to override the data center tax exemption outright, the House punted to a study group. Delay looks like a win for the industry, but the political pressure in Ohio is not going away.

INDIANA GROUP PUSHES DC BAN TO BALLOT
IndyStar

An Ohio-style ballot initiative is now being organized in Indiana. If opposition groups can export the direct-democracy playbook across state lines, legislative deal-making gets much harder.

TRUMP DC PUSH DRAWS MIXED REVIEWS
Washington Examiner

The administration's Ratepayer Protection Pledge asks tech firms to fund their own power. Industry says the demand is enormous, but EPRI projects data centers could consume 9-17% of US electricity by 2030.

QTS ACQUIRES 1700 ACRES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Data Center Dynamics

A land acquisition this size signals hyperscale-level capacity planning. Pennsylvania is in PJM, which is already under load pressure. This site will need power, and it will compete for it.

NVIDIA AND AWS SIGN MILLION-GPU DEAL
Reuters

A multi-year deal covering roughly one million GPUs through 2027 is the procurement commitment that justifies data center build orders. The hardware pipeline drives the power pipeline.