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Good morning. Utilities have plenty to learn from the NFL, according to EC Community Manager Matt Chester. Hear him out: The league knows how to lead the conversation—and make its messaging memorable. Check out his latest Substack post here, and give us your hot takes in the comments.
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With its latest wind buy-out, the Trump administration has spent $2.5B axing offshore leases.
The latest: Invenergy has agreed to give up four offshore wind leases in federal waters—in exchange for $765M from the Interior Department. (The developer was planning to build wind farms in the New York Bight, off CA’s coast, and in the Gulf of Maine.) This marks the third cancellation deal between the Trump administration and offshore wind developers.
The alternative? Invenergy will pour that money into natural gas plants in the Midwest. These projects “can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline,” said Invergeny’s senior vice president for development.
A major first: The company is also committing to spend some of the reimbursed funds on geothermal, something previous wind lease buyouts haven’t involved. (Meanwhile, Invenergy just bid on over 5K acres to develop geothermal in New Mexico…see below 👀).
While we’re here: A MA district judge ruled that clean energy developers can continue challenging federal moves to hinder wind and solar projects.
New legislation would hand FERC the power to greenlight certain data center grid connections.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the POWER Up Act, which would give FERC authority over the interconnection of large loads to interstate transmission. The bill also calls for FERC to issue a final rule “establishing standardized procedures for large load interconnection” within 18 months.
Could xAI’s court case bolster behind-the-meter gas generation?
The background: The NAACP claims that Elon Musk’s xAI is violating the Clean Air Act at its Colossus 2 data center in Mississippi, where the company is allegedly running 27 gas turbines without a permit (and posing health risks to the surrounding community).
The signal: The DOJ has gotten involved, claiming the military depends on xAI’s “Grok Gov” model—so powering off these turbines would threaten national security interests. Depending on how the case plays out, it could enable data centers serving defense functions to skirt pollution rules.
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A new NRC rule could make the nuclear renaissance a bit more affordable.
The rule reduces cost barriers for nuclear projects by, for example, putting fixed caps on NRC licensing and service fees. These changes are designed to make the agency’s licensing process “more predictable, transparent, and accessible for innovators and existing licensees alike.”
BLM’s New Mexico geothermal lease sale raked in over $16.5M.
The numbers: The agency accepted bids on 47 parcels of land covering around 150K acres. The buyers included Ormat (which shelled out nearly $2.3M) and Invenergy (which spent over $300K). This sale represents just a tiny fraction of the roughly 245M acres out West that the BLM can lease out for geothermal production.
Venezuela has inked a deal with GE Vernova to fortify the country’s ailing grid.
GE Vernova will partner with state-owned utility Corpoelec to restore 1 GW of capacity over the next two years, ramping up to over 5GW within the next five years.
After 15 years of state monopoly, recent reforms have allowed foreign investment in Venezuela's grid. The country experiences frequent power outages linked to underinvestment, deferred maintenance, and high demand.
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