THE DAILY MINE ⛏

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

AI is now accelerating nuclear reactor permitting. Nvidia is backing startups to make data centers flexible grid assets. And a family turned down $26 million to keep their farm out of a hyperscale campus. Meanwhile, $35 billion in US clean energy projects vanished last year as the rest of the world hit a record.
 

Top Stories

TEXAS $50B CLEAN ENERGY BOOM HITS THE WALL
Grist
Federal policy reversals and local pushback are threatening billions in planned wind and solar investment across the nation's largest grid market.

VISTRA, CONSTELLATION BLAST PJM DATA CENTER PLAN
Construction Owners
Major generators call PJM's colocation framework commercially unworkable, threatening to slow hyperscale deployment across the Eastern interconnection.

$35B IN US CLEAN ENERGY PROJECTS WIPED OUT
WAMC
The world invested a record $2.3 trillion in clean energy in 2025. The US went the other direction, canceling $35 billion in projects after IRA credit rollbacks.

AI NOW SPEEDING NEW NUCLEAR REACTOR BUILDS
Axios
Startups backed by Microsoft and Nvidia are using AI to compress nuclear permitting from years to months, turning data center demand into a nuclear catalyst.

FAMILY REJECTS $26M, KEEPS THE FARM
National Wire
A mother and daughter turned down a $26 million buyout rather than let their land become a 2,000-acre data center campus.

 

Power & Grid

TEXAS FORCES DATA CENTERS TO PAY FOR GRID
Latitude Media
SB6 made ERCOT the test case for making data centers fund their own grid upgrades. The implementation fight is now setting the template for every other US market.

NVIDIA BACKS $25M BET ON GRID FAST PASS FOR DATA CENTERS
Fortune
Emerald AI raised $25M to build software that lets data centers skip the interconnection queue by offering demand response as a grid asset.

NJ DECLARES POWER EMERGENCY, ORDERS BATTERY BUILD
NJ Spotlight News
Governor Sherrill froze residential rate increases and approved 355 MW of battery storage as grid stress from rising demand hits ratepayers hard.

DOE ORDERS COLORADO COAL PLANT TO STAY OPEN
Coloradoan
The Craig 1 coal unit was supposed to close in December. DOE extended its emergency order again, citing Western grid reliability as replacement generation falls behind.

DEMS RETREAT ON CLIMATE AS POWER BILLS SPIKE
Politico
State Democrats are backing off aggressive climate mandates and extending gas plant lifetimes as voter anger over utility bills reshapes the political calculus.

 

Data Centers

FESTUS MO APPROVES $6B DATA CENTER OVER PUBLIC FURY
STLtoday
City council approved a 365-acre data center campus as protesters packed the room demanding a referendum. One of the year's most dramatic council votes.

SUNBURY OH WEIGHS DATA CENTER MORATORIUM
Columbus Dispatch
Another central Ohio suburb considers a pause after residents organized against proposed facilities. The moratorium wave keeps spreading.

NEIGHBOR FIGHTS FOR STANDING AGAINST OPENAI STARGATE
MLive
A Saline Township resident is fighting for legal standing to intervene against the massive OpenAI/Oracle data center already under construction next door.

CONNECTICUT OFFERED TAX BREAKS. NOBODY CAME.
CT Insider
Only one company claimed Connecticut's data center tax incentives. The standard state playbook of tax-break-and-wait is failing.

KENTUCKY FARMER FIGHTS HYPERSCALE LAND GRAB
Kentucky News
A Mason County farmer rejects the jobs-and-tax-revenue pitch, calling out what the trade-off really costs: farmland and water supply.

 

Stat of the Day

$35B

In US clean energy project cancellations in 2025, as the Trump administration eliminated IRA credits and promoted fossil fuels. Global clean energy investment hit a record $2.3 trillion the same year. The US went the other way.

 

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