The trust gap: Just 29% of US customers think their state government protects their interests when regulating utilities, a PowerLines-Ipsos poll of over 2,000 adults found. That’s nearly a 10-point drop from last year’s poll. And only 17% believe their utility puts customers’ interests above its own.

The bipartisan squeeze: 80% of respondents “feel helpless” to control what they’re charged for gas or electricity. This concern bridges party lines and paychecks—74% of $100K+ households are worried, too.

The damage: These figures come from a new paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Price increases could prove highest in states like VA, PA, MD, NJ, and west TX. Meanwhile, power-sector CO2 emissions could rise up to 28% by 2030 due to ramped-up natural gas and coal generation.

The quicker, cleaner route? Sightline Climate identified over 22 GW of low-carbon capacity that could deliver in roughly three years (mostly by reusing existing infrastructure). The biggest pool? 16 GW from the solar+BESS projects deep in ERCOT's interconnection queue. 

The grid isn’t waiting: Amid sizzling temps and planned plant maintenance, the DOE issued an emergency order letting PJM curtail data centers (and other large loads with backup generation) through today. It's a last resort before rolling blackouts, and follows similar January orders covering PJM, Duke Carolinas/Progress, and ERCOT.

The IEA has dramatically reversed its prior outlook—it’s now projecting a supply deficit as the Iran war knocks an estimated 3.9M barrels per day off global production. Across March and April, global observed oil inventories fell by a record 246M barrels.

While the agency’s coordinated release has injected 2.5M barrels/day into the physical market from strategic reserves, agency head Fatih Birol cautioned that these emergency backstops "are not endless."

The agency notes a sharp "perception gap" between physical supply shocks and financial market pricing. Now, the onset of spring planting and summer travel will accelerate inventory drains via surging demand for diesel, fertilizer, gasoline, and jet fuel.

What consumer advocates say: The consolidation creates a political and financial behemoth—one that’ll be tough to effectively regulate. They also point to Florida Power & Light’s recent historic $7B rate hike, claiming it indicates where ratepayer leverage is headed.

Not so fast: The megamerger is far from a done deal. NextEra has a notoriously rocky track record with major corporate acquisitions—including failed talks with Duke Energy in 2020—and forces are already mobilizing for a fierce 12- to 18-month state and federal regulatory battle.

PA’s PUC issued a "first-of-its-kind" model tariff for large loads >50 MW. The non-binding order encourages utilities to charge data centers for upgrades that wouldn’t be necessary "but for" their interconnection—regardless of whether other customers later benefit from the new infrastructure.

Zooming out: Utilities and officials around the country are developing new tariffs and agreements that order large-load customers to pay for new generation and grid upgrades, per EEI analysis. Plus, subsidiaries of major holding companies like DTE Energy and Southern Company have recently filed multi-year residential rate freezes.

The agency determined that the project can skip a time-consuming environmental impact statement. It’s set to become the first grid-scale advanced nuclear plant serving a North American industrial site: X-energy plans to place four 80-MW Xe-100 reactors at Dow’s massive manufacturing facility on Texas’ Gulf Coast.

Hull Street is acquiring FirstLight from the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The deal includes nearly 1.4 GW of Northeast renewable generation (mostly composed of the massive MA Northfield Mountain pumped storage hydro facility). 

Hull Street has been buying US hydro infrastructure for decades. Its subsidiary Confluence Hydro is currently waiting on state approval for a controversial transaction to acquire 13 aging Consumers Energy hydro dams…for $1 each.