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The wind power struggle is picking up in Washington—and threatening a permitting bill. 💨
The import order: Last Thursday, President Trump claimed that imported wind turbines threaten national security. Why? They produce “unreliable and intermittent energy” and pose cybersecurity concerns, among other issues raised by the Commerce Secretary. Now, Trump is ordering trade negotiations (and may slap on tariffs later).
The offshore offensive: Earlier in the week, the Justice Department asked a court to reconsider approval of the New England Wind project off MA’s coast. That’s the fourth offshore wind project threatened by the Trump administration in the past few weeks.
The fallout: These wind attacks land at a sensitive time for the Senate’s bipartisan permitting bill (BAAJA). Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a BAAJA negotiator, warned that the recent anti-wind moves could “blow up a permitting deal.”
This sweltering summer, solar and storage saved Texans and Californians billions.
The numbers: From June-August, this tech saved Texans around $3.5B and Californians $2.5B (compared with the same span in 2021), SEIA reported. Even with record-high demand, solar and storage brought down wholesale power prices by reducing the need for pricey peaker generation.
The backdrop: Between 2021 and 2026, solar generation jumped by 421% in TX and 90% in CA, while battery storage capacity increased more than 26-fold in TX and nearly seven-fold in CA.
Plus, a safety boost: As grid batteries proliferate in the US, the annual failure rate has dropped by more than 97% over the past decade. Meaning: Grid batteries are now far less likely to experience arc flash, fire, and explosion events (thanks to advancing tech and safety standards).
MISO is going full throttle on a $22B transmission superhighway planned to link the Midwest.
The context: In recent years, MISO has been laying the groundwork for the country’s biggest regional grid upgrade yet—a 3.6K-mile, 765-kV transmission backbone that’s slated to go online from 2032-2034. Why? To 1) integrate growing renewable capacity and 2) maintain reliability as more conventional plants retire.
The latest: To build a piece of that backbone, MISO recently tapped Ameren and NextEra subsidiaries, along with the Dairyland Power Cooperative. This $1.2B project in Iowa includes a 187-mile, 765-kV line and a new substation. MISO also picked this trio to build two other projects within its major transmission buildout.
The pushback: State utility regulators have questioned the grid operator’s math on these projects’ financial benefits, and last year urged FERC to prevent cost-sharing among MISO states. But FERC hasn’t responded to this complaint.
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Are retail suppliers to blame for rising bills in PA? FirstEnergy thinks so.
The background: In Pennsylvania, ratepayers can receive default service from their utility or shop for retail electric suppliers. The latter leads to higher costs and greater risks of shutoffs, according to FirstEnergy, PA’s biggest electric company.
The numbers: FirstEnergy said that its PA residential customers served by retail suppliers paid $82M more in net generation charges in 2025 than they would at the company’s default rates. Plus, FirstEnergy claimed, these customers were around 9x more likely to experience power shutoffs in recent years. But retail suppliers said these claims don’t stand up to scrutiny.
The latest: FirstEnergy asked the PA Public Utility Commission to boost ratepayer protections with regulatory shifts opposed by suppliers. Last week, the commission approved several of these proposals, including the recommendation to cap retail suppliers’ rates at or below FirstEnergy prices in a key competitive market program (beginning in June 2027).
Sodium-ion battery maker Peak Energy has raised over $100M.
The California-based startup has pulled in $108M over a fundraising round led by General Motors Ventures. The company’s pitch: Peak Energy says its batteries harness passive cooling, which makes them simpler and cheaper to operate than other tech.
Sodium’s rise to stardom: Sodium-ion batteries could edge out lithium-ion tech by avoiding the need for scarce lithium resources (instead, they rely on elements commonly found in seawater and mineral deposits across the globe).
What’s next: With over 6 GWh of customer commitments on the books, Peak is seeking to begin production at its new CA plant in early 2027.
The industry has already shown that data centers can flex. Now it needs to show whether the grid can count on that flexibility when it matters.
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Thanks for reading. TTYL!