BREAKING

Virginia is officially back in RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. With this move, Virginia polluters are once again having to account for and reduce their pollution. The program will also deliver funding for flood protection, energy efficiency, and power bill rebates.

1. The Supreme Court Rules Independent Agencies Now Serve at the Pleasure of the President

In a 6-3 ruling Monday, the Supreme Court struck down 91 years of precedent protecting independent agency boards from political removal. Among those on the line: FERC and the SEC.

• In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned the 1935 precedent that prevented presidents from removing the leadership of independent agencies (except the Fed) without cause. The ruling confirmed that Trump’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter was lawful, and in doing so, effectively made every independent agency board member fireable by the president at will.

• The implications for FERC — specifically structured during the 1970s energy crisis to be insulated from political pressures felt by the president — are direct and severe. As Joel Eisen, a law professor at the University of Richmond, put it, there is “no longer any legal doctrine stopping a president from removing any member of FERC if it were to do anything with which that president disagreed.”

• Independence matters for climate financial regulation too. The SEC’s board — already hamstrung with only 3 of 5 commissioners seated as Trump has refused to appoint the required minority party representatives — is also subject to Slaughter, further putting at risk independent expert assessments of the urgency of climate risk, emissions, and other material disclosures.

2. CARB Delays Emissions Reporting Deadline

Companies have a three-month reprieve as California’s landmark corporate disclosure law gets delayed.

• The California Air Resources Board pushed back the first reporting deadline under SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, from August 10 to November 10. The delay is procedural: CARB withdrew its initial regulation from the state’s Office of Administrative Law to make targeted clarifying changes, and the three-month extension gives covered companies a clearer view of the final requirements before their inaugural reports are due.

• The substance of the law is unchanged. SB 253 requires U.S.-based companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue doing business in California to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. The companion law, SB 261, which requires climate-related financial risk disclosures, remains under a Ninth Circuit injunction, though more than 170 companies have voluntarily submitted reports anyway.

• California is the world’s fifth-largest economy and understands that emissions represent a material risk for companies as the ongoing and inevitable energy transition moves forward. The California framework is filling a vacuum that the federal government created and is actively widening in order to provide transparent, decision-useful information to investors, regulators and the public.

3. Duke Energy Cuts Its Rate Request, But Negotiations Take a Familiar Turn

After public pressure, Duke reduced its proposed residential rate increase from 18% to 11.6%, replicating a familiar pattern in the high-stakes game of rate negotiations.

• Duke Energy announced it is reducing its proposed residential rate increase in North Carolina from 18% to 11.6% after pushback from state officials. The 11.6% figure is worth sitting with. With inflation running high — approximately 9% since Duke’s last rate increase in 2023 — any rate increase above inflation is asking ratepayers to absorb costs that exceed general price increase.

• The research on utility rate cases is instructive here: studies have found that the “meet in the middle” strategy consistently favors utilities over ratepayers, because it incentivizes utilities to ask for more than they need. That dynamic helps explain why independent, knowledgeable regulators matter: it changes the negotiating geometry, rather than just trying to settle in the middle of a gamified range.

• Also on regulators’ desks: the cost and type of energy generation utilities are procuring. According to a Southern Alliance for Clean Energy report this week, Duke recently projected less near-term solar procurement than previously planned, withdrew two customer solar programs in the Carolinas, and had its 2026 solar RFP paused by the North Carolina Utilities Commission chairman. Duke is raising rates while saying no to the most economical and quickest-to-deploy sources of power, opening their hand for more when they aren’t delivering the best value for consumers.

State Senator Michael Garrett of Guilford County framed the issue starkly:

“Is the profit Duke Energy earns actually fair to the people of North Carolina?” [...] Because our system should answer to the family at the kitchen table, not the shareholder watching the dividend. Duke’s investors are not the ones choosing between prescriptions and groceries.”

4. Rhode Island’s Legislative Session Ends With One Resilience Win and Several Near-Misses

Strengthen Rhody Homes passes. A suite of bolder climate and insurance bills did not.

• Rhode Island’s 2026 legislative session closed with a notable step forward for climate resilience: H7865, creating the “Strengthen Rhody Homes” program, was signed into law. The program, currently unfunded, creates the structures needed to help homeowners harden their properties against climate hazards like hurricanes and high winds, joining a small but growing list of successful state-level fortification programs. The state can now pursue Federal grants to support the program. Given Rhode Island’s 400 miles of coastline and documented exposure to storm surge, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation, the program is timely.

• The session ended without passing a trio of more ambitious proposals. H7752 would have allowed people, companies, municipalities, and insurers to pursue damages from fossil fuel companies who engaged in deception for climate-related damages.The Rhode Island Insurance Market Protection Act (H8219/S2646), would have required insurers in the state to phase out their underwriting and investing in fossil fuels, and created a mechanism to manage the exit of insurers that withdraw from the market. And a third proposal (H7340) contained a resolution to encourage insurers to pursue subrogation against companies who lied about climate impacts and their contributions. It was put aside for further study. None of the three passed.

• That insurance, resilience, and fossil fuels were a focus of Rhode Island’s legislative agenda should be no surprise. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been leading nationally on making the connection between climate change and insurance costs. This month, he proposed a Senate resolution making that link explicit.

Whitehouse’s floor testimony summed up why we can’t stop talking about insurance: “The bottom line is climate risk has moved from the science department to the economics department and it has landed hard in home insurance.”

5. California Transit Fighting for Funding

Newsom’s latest budget excluded $690 million in emergency funding for public transit agencies — money promised in a 2023 deal. Simultaneously, CARB rule changes mark a $600 million giveaway to the oil industry.

• California climate and transit advocates are pressing state lawmakers to protect roughly $600 million in transit dollars generated by the state’s cap-and-invest program while Newsom’s budget shortchanges public transit agencies an additional promised $690 million.

• There is irony in the cap-and-invest risk: The threat comes from CARB’s own recent rule changes, which created a new Manufacturing Decarbonization Incentive (MDI) program that would give free allowances to polluting industries in exchange for untested decarbonization investments. Analysts estimate this move could reduce Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) revenues by $2.3 billion over the next several years. CARB’s MDI effectively props up oil refineries with free allowances — cutting funding for solutions, like transit, while investing in the problem.

• California’s public transit agencies are already navigating fiscal cliffs created by post-pandemic ridership changes and the expiration of federal relief funding, and the potential loss of GGRF support compounds an already precarious situation. In the Bay Area, initiatives on the ballot this fall hope to save SF Muni, BART, and the regional transit network from collapse.

• The broader irony is that public transit does enormous emissions-reduction work on a shoestring budget (LA Metro reached its highest ridership since COVID last month!) and these are exactly the programs that should be getting more resources as California tries to decarbonize transportation, not fewer.

Virginia’s budget standoff ends with an energy consumption fee on data centers. The politics of the data center boom are shifting fast, and Virginia’s resolution is an odd one.

• Virginia lawmakers reached a budget deal this week that appears to have pulled the state back from the brink of a government shutdown, with a key piece of the agreement being a new energy consumption fee on data centers. The deal, which still requires Governor Spanberger’s signature, is expected to generate $600 million per year in revenue.

• The mechanism matters. Rather than revoking existing sales tax exemptions — which data centers have long relied on and aggressively defended, and which Gov. Spanberger thought of as non-negotiable — the conference report landed on an energy consumption fee of $0.11 per kWh, up to a cap of $600 million.

• To put the political context in sharper relief: those data center tax exemptions were worth roughly $1.9 billion to the industry in 2025, approximately 2% of the entire state budget.

• Virginia’s data centers consumed 31 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025. Despite this demand driving fossil fuel consumption, no new legislative agreements were made to ensure Virginia’s clean energy laws are followed.

• This story fits squarely into a pattern we’ve been tracking: the rapidly shifting politics of data centers. What’s distinctive about Virginia’s situation is that data center demand is so concentrated (the state hosts more data center capacity than anywhere else in the world) that it has become a genuine fiscal and grid emergency. The question of who pays for load growth, who is on the hook for failures, and how clean the energy supply will be, is one that every major data center state is going to have to answer.

2. Alaska LNG Hits a Wall… For Now

The Alaska House rejected the Senate’s LNG bill. A conference committee convenes July 1.

• Alaska’s legislature remains deadlocked on legislation to advance the massive Alaska LNG project, a proposed 807-mile pipeline connecting North Slope natural gas to proposed export terminals near Anchorage for sale to Asian markets. The Alaska House voted 12-28 to reject the Senate’s revised bill, which the Senate declined to abandon its own version by a 0-16 margin. The two chambers will now convene a conference committee to hash out an agreement beginning July 1.

• In a special session called by Governor Dunleavy expressly to advance the project, neither chamber managed to pass a bill the other would accept, and Dunleavy himself declared the Senate’s version “doesn’t work” within minutes of its passage.

• What’s quietly happening in the Senate is worth paying attention to: legislators there appear to be recognizing that a pure fossil fuel giveaway that showers the project with subsidies and tax breaks without ensuring sufficient benefit flows back to Alaskans isn’t politically sustainable.

• Zooming out: In a world where no new fossil fuel infrastructure should be built if we’re to stay within a workable carbon budget, this megaproject is designed for export through the 2060s and beyond. On this critical front: the details of the deal matter less than what building it at all would unleash.

3. A New Framework for Home Resilience

Public Citizen lays out best practices for state resilience grants programs, and uses Louisiana as a cautionary tale.

• A new report from Public Citizen offers both a blueprint and a warning for states thinking about home resilience grant programs.

• First, the good news: resiliency investments make homeowners and communities safer — and can make insurance more affordable.

• However, the report argues that the insurance industry’s dominant response to climate risk (raising rates, reducing coverage, or exiting markets entirely) constitutes a market failure, and that states should step in to structure grant programs, like Alabama’s, that fund physical hardening of homes against climate hazards.

• Design of these programs matters, and the cautionary tale here is Louisiana’s LA Fortify Homes program. The program excludes many of the most vulnerable homeowners: it isn’t targeted to those with the greatest financial need, requires homeowners to pay out of pocket for an eligibility inspection, and bars uninsured homeowners (roughly 20% of the state’s homes) from participating at all. At the current pace, advocates estimate the program would take until 2062 to retrofit just 25% of Louisiana homes. That is not a pace that matches the climate challenges the state is facing.

• The insurance angle is one we’ve been tracking closely. Insurers are posting record profits even as consumers face skyrocketing premiums and diminished coverage. That gap between insurer returns and policyholder experience is exactly where the case for resilience investment is strongest. The money to fund better programs exists; the question is whether states will demand it.

Alex Martin of Americans for Financial Reform writes of the report,

“[T]here is low hanging fruit to address the climate-driven insurance crisis--fortified roof programs that protect homes against wind and hail damage--but many states simply don’t have enough fiscal space to fund them right now beyond pilots. The pullback of federal resilience resources is making things even worse. Wherever could we find the cash to fund these programs? Let’s follow Alabama’s lead and make the insurance industry pay into these programs.”

4. FERC’s Plan for Data Centers: States Need to Make a Plan

FERC’s new data center framework wins bipartisan praise. It also largely punts the hard work to regional grid operators and state regulators.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a new framework this week to address the electricity demands of large loads (particularly data centers) by a 5-0 bipartisan vote. Reaction from groups including the Sierra Club and Advanced Energy United was broadly positive. The plan is essentially a menu of options, directing regional transmission organizations to develop their own rules for how to handle interconnection, cost recovery, and planning for large industrial loads.

• The diplomatic read of this outcome is that FERC is appropriately directing regions to develop tailored solutions. The more candid read is that the commission has given states and regional grid operators the responsibility of solving a set of problems that are deeply political and technically complex, without resolving the underlying conflicts itself. As Politico put it, the Fed’s fix is: make states figure it out.

• At the same time, a bipartisan House bill has been introduced to allow utilities to recover from large-load customers the costs of capacity expansions they trigger. That’s an important complement to the FERC framework, and an acknowledgement of what ratepayer advocates have long argued: if a hyperscaler’s new data center requires a $500 million substation upgrade, ordinary households shouldn’t foot the bill.

• The order spotlit many of the biggest topics facing grid planners and rate regulators. One we’ll be watching: transmission planning. Transmission is a make-or-break variable for how the U.S. navigates both rising load growth and clean energy buildout, yet many grid managers have woefully inadequate processes that make new transmission expensive to build or upgrade.

As Former FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee wrote, “A very FERC-y approach!”

5. California Sues Trump Over EPA Power Grab

California AG Rob Bonta argues the Trump administration’s use of the Congressional Review Act to undo emissions rules is illegal on its face.

• California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit this week against the Trump Administration over its use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to invalidate several Clean Air Act waivers, the state’s 72nd suit against the Administration.

• The EPA this month unilaterally reclassified the long-standing waivers, which allow California to set stricter emissions standards as rules. “Rules” can then be subject to the CRA, which allows Congress to vote to overturn them. A successful suit would reinstate these particular California regulations (which affect automakers and polluting lawn and garden tools) and put guardrails around the administration’s use of the CRA as a regulatory wrecking ball.

• This reclassification is a subtle but powerful attempt at a power grab by the EPA. The precedent is clear: over 75 waivers have been granted by both Democratic and Republican Federal administrations. These waivers have been crucial to protecting public health, driving forward clean transportation, and cleaning California’s air.

California Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez said,

“Using the Congressional Review Act this way is illegal. It puts the health of millions of Californians at risk by compromising our ability to meet national air quality standards and could cut off critical transportation funding that our communities and businesses rely on. California will not stand by idly — we will defend our authority, protect public health, and continue working toward a cleaner, healthier future.”

New state-specific polling from the Insurance Fairness Project and Climate Power shows the growing salience of climate-driven insurance costs for Americans. The poll found that more than three-quarters of voters are concerned about the costs of insurance — and a staggering 26-30% have put off a significant purchase as a result of rising insurance costs.

1. California Solar Outperforms Gas in 2026

In May, solar topped coal nationwide for the first time. In California, solar is fast displacing natural gas.

• In the first few months of 2026, solar surpassed California’s gas generation as percent of electricity production for the first time ever, increasing 21% over the same time period in 2024. Battery storage is helping solar beat out gas, as it allows excess solar energy from the day to be carried to times with little solar generation.

• Also from January to May 2026, gas generation in the state fell from its 2024 levels by 60% — thanks to extensive solar and battery additions on the grid, and more imports from out-of-state hydro and wind energy.

• Year-by-year, new clean additions to the grid continue to drive down the share of fossil fuels present on the grid while maintaining system reliability, in spite of the federal government’s best efforts to oppose new renewable energy.

2. Louisiana Protects Oil Industry from Lawsuits

As solar proves its inevitability in California, Louisiana moves to protect legacy fuels from liability from the damage their products have caused.

• In Louisiana courts, Americans, companies, and municipalities now won’t be allowed to sue the oil and gas industry for its role in climate change as a result of the Louisiana Energy Protection Act. This legislation, signed into law by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry this week, prohibits lawsuits against the industry for climate damages. Landry is a longtime climate denier and has worked to use the power of his office to support the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry.

• Congress is considering similar legislation that would give the fossil fuel industry essentially blanket immunity for their emissions and role in causing — and covering up — climate change. The bills are a direct response to both a growing number of lawsuits against the oil and gas industry for climate-driven damages, and the growing number of alternatives to fossil fuels fueling the economy.

• The liability shield has long been a target of the fossil fuel industry, which has aggressively lobbied and litigated for extensive liability protections that have been afforded to almost no other industry, except for the firearm industry.

3. Alaska Steps Closer To Public Subsidies For $54 Billion Project

As its price estimates continue to climb, the Glenfarne Pipeline might get a specially-made 90% property tax break thanks to Alaska’s Governor and State House.

• By a 34-5 margin, the Alaska House voted last week to pass a bill trying to change the financial realities facing the Alaska LNG project, which is estimated to cost between $44 and $54 billion. The proposed pipeline will connect North Slope natural gas to new LNG export terminals near Anchorage, Alaska for export to Asia.

• The 807-mile pipeline and Alaska LNG project has been in the works for a decade, but continues to delay its “final investment decision” pending more purchase agreements from foreign customers. This is despite existing multi-billion-dollar guarantees from Japan and federal support.

• Still, generous conditions haven’t been enough for the Alaska LNG project: Governor Mike Dunleavy called a special session of the legislature to seek a massive property tax cut to subsidize the project, equating to a 90% reduction in property taxes.

Kay Brown, Arctic Policy Director at Pacific Environment, said,

Sponsors for the proposed 807-mile Alaska gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas processing and export facilities are seeking additional massive public subsidies to make the project viable. Even fallout from the largest “oil disruption in history” isn’t enough to overcome the need.

4. Trump’s Coal Plants To Be Built By MAGA Activists

The Trump Energy Department will give $18 million to a company led by a far-right activist with no energy sector expertise.

• As part of Trump’s new $850 million push to subsidize coal plants, his administration plans to give $18 million to TerraSpark, a company proposing to build a 1.6 GW coal power plant in West Virginia, which would be the first new coal plant since 2013.

• TerraSpark is led by Alex Phillips, who has no energy industry experience and instead has led a telecom company and an “America First” PAC. Phillips also hosted the far-right, Q-Anon-linked American Priority Conference (AMPfest).

• The administration will be supporting TerraSpark by giving it taxpayer money to fund a feasibility and design study, which it apparently did without giving a heads up to the Republican lawmaker whose district would host the potential plant.

Mike McKenna, a former Trump energy official and current energy lobbyist: “This is not normal.”

5. Suspending the Federal Gas Tax Won’t Solve War-Driven Inflation

New research finds that suspending the federal gas tax won’t offset commodity price increases driven by the Trump-Iran War.

• According to new research from the Yale Budget Lab, proposals to suspend the federal gas tax to fix war-driven inflation won’t make much of a dent in the overall fuel cost increases. The research finds that the average household will save $37 over three months against a $250 price increase.

• The research should put to bed renewed calls from certain Democratic candidates for suspending the gas tax. Senate candidate James Talarico in Texas called for a suspension, while Graham Platner in Maine called for an end to the gas tax entirely. Democratic Senators have similarly proposed gas tax holidays.

• At this point, however, suspending or ending the gas tax won’t fix much: a good deal of the savings will be retained by producers, while the government loses a critical revenue raiser that maintains the country’s extensive transportation infrastructure.

Spotlight: The World Cup Comes To The U.S.

This year’s 2026 World Cup is home in the United States, much to the delight of some of us here at Pleiades. This year’s World Cup is different, though: the tournament is being hosted across a massive geographic footprint spanning three nations, 22 million miles, and 2,800 miles between co-host cities Vancouver and Miami. The tournament is also in its first expanded format, increasing the number of teams from 32 to 48, and the number of games from 64 to 104, which also increases the total amount of travel for teams and fans attending the tournament.

The large geographic spread means that the tournament’s travel-induced carbon emissions will be higher than ever. And though existing infrastructure means lower construction-caused emissions, these gains aren’t enough to offset the gargantuan rise in transportation emissions, which represent a growing share of U.S. emissions. The tournament is set to double its emissions from its 2022 emissions, at 3.6 million metric tons of CO2, to 7.8 million metric tons this year.

The climate impacts aren’t off the field either: players, staff, and fans will be braving extreme heat at a number of games. The matches will be held with much of the North American continent facing above-normal temperatures.

More fun: we thought it was also a great opportunity to highlight the big gains solar is making across the world. See our analysis of solar production and FIFA ratings — and let us know who you’re rooting for!

According to a new report from Ember, solar topped coal as a percentage of US energy mix this May — marking the first time the technology has overtaken coal for a whole month and a sign of solar’s powerhouse role in the modern energy mix.

Source: Ember Energy via Bloomberg News

1. Data Centers Draw Criticism From Cheerleaders

As costs escalate and public opposition mounts, policymakers who boosted data centers are now turning on them — at least rhetorically.

• As data centers are becoming more and more unpopular nationally, state policymakers are seeing increasing pressure to oppose them, or at least impose certain guardrails on the data center construction boom. This past week saw a flurry of activity across the states.

• In Tennessee, lawmakers passed HB1847, a bill that requires data centers above 50MW in size to pay for the costs of grid upgrades. In Portland, in response to legislation passed last year, Portland General Electric announced that it would raise the rates data centers pay by 29%. Finally, in Ohio, lawmakers are reportedly planning a legislative package to “rein” in data centers following years of tax breaks to attract them.

• Governors, too, are feeling the pressure. Utah Governor Spencer Cox ordered a “higher bar” for data centers, despite massively boosting data centers just months prior. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, another former data center booster, established stricter standards for data centers being built in the state. The reaction from elected officials is an indication of the shifting politics: even data centers’ strongest cheerleaders are turning against them, as support increasingly looks like a political vulnerability.

2. Trump Administration Spends Even More To Subsidize Aging Coal

The administration wants to spend $850 million to subsidize aging coal power plants — and build two more.

• Last week, the Department of Energy announced that it would commit $850 million to modernize more than a dozen coal facilities, boost coal export capacity, and build the first two new coal power plants since 2013.

• The move isn’t out of step for the coal-obsessed Trump Administration: in addition to sabotaging renewable deployment, the administration has required multiple aging coal plants to stay open, at a very high cost to utility ratepayers. Now, the administration wants to deploy public dollars to do the same.

• Contrary to the arguments of coal’s biggest supporters, there’s little reason to keep coal on the grid. It’s neither truly dispatchable nor flexible as an energy source, and is struggling to keep up reliability, especially during peak demand and extreme weather events. Coal is becoming increasingly expensive, following an opposite cost curve to renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal, and battery storage, which are seeing significant price reductions every year. Of course, coal is also the dirtiest of fossil fuels, with significant impacts to local air pollution and emissions.

3. New York Wraps Up Legislative Session With Climate Rollback

New York’s legislative session closed last week with lower climate ambition, and no action on multiple bills targeting the insurance industry’s relationship with fossil fuels.

• On Thursday last week, New York’s 2026 legislative session wrapped up, with a lot left to be desired from climate hawks. Hochul signed significant revisions to the state’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which had set ambitious targets for rapid decarbonization.

• Hochul’s changes to the law include extending the deadline to design emissions reduction regulations until the end of 2028, eliminating a 2030 interim target of 40% GHG emissions reduction, and changing the state’s emissions accounting protocols. Hochul previously tried to justify the amendments by arguing that the law was too ambitious, despite failing to implement key regulations required under the law herself.

• The legislature also closed without passing the Climate Accountability and Loss Recovery Act, which would allow the Attorney General to sue fossil fuel companies for climate-related damages, and the Insure Our Communities Act, which would require insurance companies to align their long-term strategies with climate targets.

4. Colorado Implements Property Risk Mitigation Law

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signs a bill to fund property-level fortification, as insurance costs continue to rise in the state.

• Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed SB 155 into law on Monday. The bill creates a new state enterprise to fund property-level mitigation to reduce replacement costs driven by hail and other hazards and requires insurers to pay a 0.5% fee on premiums to fund the enterprise.

• The state enterprise, the Strengthen Colorado Homes Enterprise, is one of many being designed and implemented by state policymakers as climate-driven hazards continue to drive risk across the country. Louisiana recently allocated $50 million in additional funds for its Fortify Louisiana Homes Program.

• While these measures account for a small share of state budgets, they’re important for their role in reducing overall physical risk and driving a commensurate reduction in insured losses from climate-driven hazards.

Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway said, “SB26-155 builds on what we’ve done so far and will generate real savings for Coloradans through a hail mitigation grant program. Hail is the number one cost driver of homeowners insurance premiums in our state, and this legislation will ensure that more Coloradans can afford to upgrade their roofs, thereby reducing claims and risk across the state.”

SPOTLIGHT: Solving Challenges with Transmission

The California Independent System Operator (ISO) recently approved its new 2025-2026 transmission plan, with 38 recommended infrastructure projects to accommodate growing demand and more renewable energy resources on the grid. The plan calls for utilities to spend around $6.7 billion over the next 10 years.

The new transmission plan will allow the state to more easily develop energy resources, including 45 GW of solar generation in southern California and southern Nevada, 8 GW of in-state wind generation, and 2 GW of future geothermal generation in California and Nevada. The transmission upgrades will help California benefit from greater out-of-state resources across the West.

Transmission is hugely important to the energy transition: smart planning can reduce capacity needs by linking multiple markets together, and jumpstart energy development. In Texas, via Competitive Renewable Energy Zones, the state jumpstarted wind and solar development by building transmission before energy resources, thereby making energy development cheaper and faster. In that case, the benefits from the CREZ program far outpaced the costs.

The Trump-aligned SEC is formally withdrawing a rule that would’ve required companies to report on material climate-related risks and carbon pollution.

• Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a rescission of the agency’s own Biden-era Climate-Related Disclosure Rules, a first step in formally removing the rule. In February 2025, the Trump-aligned acting chair of the SEC directed the agency to stop defending the rules from challenges in court.

• The rules, which were adopted by Chair Gary Gensler in 2024, required companies to disclose climate-related risks to their business, how they plan to adapt to climate change, and Scope 1 and 2 emissions for certain filers.

• Despite the administration’s efforts, eliminating reporting of certain risks doesn’t change reality: climate change continues to unfold and pose significant risks to the financial system, whether the SEC is collecting data or not.

• Still, it’s yet another area in which the federal government is stepping back and ceding ground: climate disclosure will continue to move on, just under the purview of different jurisdictions, including in California and abroad.

Heather Palmer, a partner at law firm Sidley Austin: “Even with the S.E.C. rule being rescinded, there are other disclosure requirements that are likely going to apply to public companies.”

2. Primary Elections in Six States Clarify the November Map, with Key Results in California Awaiting Finalization

As of Thursday morning, the California Governor’s top-two primary race is led by Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, but a narrow path remains for climate philanthropist Tom Steyer to make the ballot.

• On Tuesday, California was one of six states to hold primary elections ahead of the 2026 Midterms. California voters chose the candidates in hundreds of races including the gubernatorial race and insurance commissioner’s race, both critical elections for climate and clean energy policy.

• With many mail-in ballots still to arrive, former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Trump-endorsed Steve Hilton lead in the Governor’s race, while Senator Ben Allen and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim lead the top two spots for Insurance Commissioner. In both races, results are far from confirmed.

• A pathway remains for climate philanthropist Tom Steyer in the Governor’s race, though remaining ballots will need to be far more Democratic than early results. Climate and clean energy groups backed Steyer, who criticized Becerra’s ties to major oil companies and utilities.

• Elsewhere, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland became the Democratic nominee for Governor in New Mexico, making the climate hawk the likely next Governor of New Mexico. In Iowa, it appears as though Democrats will give Republicans tougher races for Governor after a more extreme candidate in the Republican Governor’s primary beat out Trump and party-backed candidate Randy Feenstra.

3. CARB Doles Out Giveaways to Refineries in Cap-And-Invest Update

California’s primary air regulator gives a major financial and compliance gift to refineries in a walkback of the Golden State’s climate ambition.

• Last Friday in a divisive vote, the California Air Resources Board voted to finalize major changes to cap-and-invest, California’s carbon trading program, with a plan to allow oil refiners and other major polluters to receive allowances equivalent to 118 million tons of carbon pollution. CARB’s more robust original proposal in January – designed to help the state make up a gap in mandated emissions reductions by decreasing available allowances – received pushback from oil companies, which threatened to close their in-state refineries.

• The new “manufacturing decarbonization incentive” allowances could be worth up to an eye-popping $4 billion and represent a significant share of a critical revenue-raising and carbon-pricing tool in California’s arsenal. With lower expected revenues, this move reduces funding for critical climate programs, including wildfire mitigation, affordable housing, and high-speed rail.

• While framed otherwise, this is a significant weakening of climate ambition by California, which has been the face of climate ambition as the second Trump Administration targeted climate policies. CARB’s rule change will lead to lower carbon prices and more pollution.

4. Illinois’s Legislative Session Ends With Movement on Insurance

As the climate-driven insurance crisis creates affordability concerns, Illinois advanced modest proposals.

• As its legislature wrapped up last week, the Illinois General Assembly passed multiple bills intending to alleviate the burdens of the growing insurance crisis in the state. Lawmakers passed SB714 and HB4273, two bills to give the Department of Insurance more oversight over “unfair” rates. They also passed SB4006, which tries to increase participation in climate-related data collection by insurers.

• Still, the bills are just a starting point, falling short of the full ambition of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s aggressive push in 2025 to increase Department of Insurance oversight over rate requests, not just those deemed unfair or excessive.

Meanwhile, SB4006 was significantly amended before passage to remove critical risk reduction measures, including a program called the Strengthen Illinois Homes Program to fund property-level mitigation. The bill would have also required insurers to reflect mitigation measures with bill credits or rate reductions.

5. Arizona Adds Massive Batteries

Arizona now ranks second in the country for new battery additions so far in 2026, as it accelerates clean energy deployment.

• Arizona is now a national leader in utility-scale battery storage capacity. So far in 2026, Arizona has added 940 MWh of battery storage, putting it second in the country behind Texas (2,696 MWh) and slightly ahead of California (936 MWh) in new battery capacity additions.

• In 2025, Arizona became the third-largest state for deployed battery storage systems and its new 2026 additions now bring it to more than 20 GWh of battery storage, behind California (60.6 GWh) and Texas (29.2 GWh) in total installed battery capacity.

• Despite the administration’s unrelenting attacks on renewables, clean energy continues to be deployed at scale, especially alongside batteries. Batteries are also making other forms of clean energy, especially solar, more attractive to grid planners, utilities, and energy planners.

Pleiades’ Take: Batteries give us hope! Tell your friends.

SPOTLIGHT: Insurance Crisis Squeezes Homeowners

A new study from the Urban Institute finds that climate-driven insurance risks are increasingly burdening homeowners and putting homeownership further out of reach for Americans. The report found that insurance costs are accounting for a growing share of the costs of homeownership, rising from 1.87% as a share of income in 2018 to 2.27% in 2024. Importantly, the report also notes a growing share of high-burden premiums, finding that 16.2% of new mortgages in 2024 had premiums exceeding 3% of income, compared to just 10.5% in 2018.

Individuals in high-hazard areas face burdens significantly higher than those in low-risk areas, a gap that has accelerated since 2018. Importantly, though, these discrepancies aren’t limited to differences in risk across geographies: those with the highest existing financial burdens, like lower incomes, credit scores, and high-debt-to-income ratios, are more likely than others to be significantly burdened by insurance.

After a failed attempt to pass a massive tax break for pipelines, Gov. Dunleavy is trying again as pipeline backers admit the infrastructure requires massive public subsidies.

• Late last week, legislators in Alaska returned to work after the close of their regular session as Governor Mike Dunleavy called a special session focused on the planned trans-Alaska Glenfarne Pipeline, which would carry gasre 800 miles from Alaska’s North Slope gas reserves to Anchorage, where it would be exported primarily to Japan. The special session is focused on a proposal to eliminate 90% of the property taxes that would be levied on pipeline-related infrastructure in the state.

• The pipeline has faced significant opposition and is not a sure bet: despite efforts by Dunleavy and the Trump Administration to force through the pipeline, the project’s ever-increasing and unknown costs have put the project’s economics into question. Lawmakers have objected to the high costs, and did not pass the 90% tax break during Alaska’s regular session.

• Glenfarne is still resting the final investment decision on “more offtake agreements” by customers, and the potential tax breaks. In any case, it’s unclear how Alaskans, who are facing an energy crisis as the Cook Inlet reserves face depletion, would benefit from a significant expansion in the state’s LNG export capacity.

Homer Electric Association Board Member Erin McKittrick said, “We had Glenfarne here last year saying that they were going to get their (final investment decision) by the end of 2025 before the legislative session. And then now we have Glenfarne saying they are completely dependent on a tax break that the legislature passes for them.”

2. Shapiro Wants To Condition Support for Data Centers

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announces his plan to require data centers to meet standards before receiving state help.

• Governor Josh Shapiro released his new 2026-27 budget, which includes the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) principles, which will require data centers to meet certain standards on energy, transparency, workforce, and environmental standards before being eligible for Pennsylvania’s fast-track permit program.

• It’s a big shift for Shapiro, who once boldly declared he was “all in on AI” when announcing a $20 billion Amazon data center in Pennsylvania. Shapiro also announced that Pennsylvania already has the “energy resources to support this technology.”

• It’s also a sign of the evolving politics of data centers, which are drawing significant public backlash and increasingly bringing scrutiny from lawmakers seeking to restrict or pare back tax breaks for data centers.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro: “If companies want the Commonwealth’s full support — they must meet strong standards on energy affordability, clean energy generation, transparency, workforce development, community impact, and environmental protection.”

3. Red-State AGs File Anti-ESG Lawsuits Against ISS

Four Republican AGs announced they would sue Institutional Shareholder Services over its consideration of climate-related factors and ESG.

• The Attorneys General of Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, and West Virginia announced lawsuits against major proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services, alleging its use of ESG criteria and consideration of climate-related factors violated state laws. The lawsuits were headlined by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a long-time anti-ESG stalwart candidate for Senate.

• Paxton previously tried to enforce an unconstitutional law that included significant restrictions on the advisors’ ability to provide advice to shareholders, and argued that ISS tried to “obstruct” ExxonMobil’s move to Texas from New York. Exxon has attacked proxy advisors, and backed SB 2337, the Texas law restricting proxy advisors that was declared unconstitutional.

• Despite the efforts to intimidate the proxy advisors, ISS has shown few signs of cowing under pressure: it has pledged to “vigorously defend” itself. The pressure from the anti-ESG state executives does not change the fact that climate-related financial factors are real, and are material to core business decisions.

4. NV Energy Announces Gigawatts of New Renewables, and Gas for Data Centers

In its new integrated resource plan, NV Energy files for approval of 4.3 GW of solar and 5.4 GW of storage, with 1.2 GW of gas.

• NV Energy, the largest utility in Nevada, has filed its 2026 integrated resource plan, in which it is seeking regulatory approval for 4.3 GW of new solar development, 5.4 GW of storage, and 180 MW of new geothermal energy. NV Energy also says it needs 1.2 GW of new gas to power its growing base of data center customers.

• The IRP represents a massive investment in new clean energy additions to the grid, in a state with significant renewable energy potential. Still, as advocates point out, the gas remains an ominous sign as it’s being built to serve data centers, which are projected to constitute a massively growing share of NV Energy’s customer base.

• The utility warned in January that it would basically need to double its renewable energy generation by 2030 to meet its RPS as a result of the explosion of data centers in the state.

5. Public Financing Would Unlock $9 Billion In Savings For New England Transmission

New research shows that publicly-financed transmission would unlock significant long-term savings.

• According to new research from the Acadia Center, shifting transmission financing and funding to government bonds and public-private partnerships could create more than $9 billion in long-term savings, as opposed to profit-driven financing.

• ISO New England, the region’s grid operator, has already identified $16 to $26 billion in long term regional transmission investment to continue to ensure reliability through rising energy demand and decarbonization.

• Public involvement also brings an element of long-term, coordinated planning, which can be used to unlock private industry competition and deliver cheap, renewable energy to the places it is needed.

Jamie Dickerson, senior director of climate and clean energy at the Acadia Center and one of the report authors, said, “It’s not every day that we unearth a solution that can deliver up to $10 billion in potential savings even though it is over a multi-decade period, so we’re really excited for policy makers and stakeholders to embrace this model.”

SPOTLIGHT: Insurers Are Reporting On Climate Risk, But Missing Key Substance

A new report this week by Ceres finds that insurers are continuing to participate en masse in the disclosure process across the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures pillars: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics & Targets. Ceres found that over 83% of insurance companies now disclose across all four pillars, up slightly from 2021.

Yet the quality of data doesn’t match the breadth of it: only 10.5% of individual disclosures meet the “fully met” standard, which is essentially flat since 2021. The data gaps are most stark in Metrics & Targets, where a majority of carriers are missing key data points, particularly in Scope 3 emissions. Still, industry leaders demonstrate that full compliance and fully meeting the TCFD standards isn’t due to a lack of capacity.

The Granite State became the seventh state to advance a bill to allow the easy installation of small-scale consumer solar systems.

• The New Hampshire legislature passed SB 540 last week, which allows utility customers to connect solar devices up to 1.2 kW without seeking approval or permission from utilities. The bill now awaits approval from New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte.

• New Hampshire is joining a growing list of states seeking to expand access to solar by allowing residents access cheaper, easily-installed solar: seven states, including New Hampshire, have passed legislation. The trend began in “deep-red” Utah, which passed a bill authorizing plug-in solar in 2025.

• In total, more than 30 states have considered similar legislation. This includes California, which is the largest market for residential solar installations, where the State Senate passed the Plug and Play Solar Act by a 35-1 vote.

2. NextEra and Dominion Energy Seek To Create World’s Largest Utility

NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, two of the country’s largest energy companies, are looking to merge with a $67 billion buyout offer from NextEra.

• NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy released a bombshell announcement on Monday, saying the two companies reached an agreement to merge into one mega-utility serving more than 10 million customers across the Southeast. The combined utility would be the largest renewable energy and natural gas operator, and the second-largest operator of nuclear power in the country.

• The merger will pair NextEra, the largest developer of renewable energy in the country, with Dominion Energy, which has faced criticism for its failure to bring batteries and renewables online fast enough. Still, NextEra and Dominion both retain a significant fleet of fossil-fired generators, and NextEra continues to build new gas plants to serve its growing base of data center customers.

• The merger isn’t without its issues for customers either: both NextEra and Dominion have a long history of spending significantly on political campaigns, lobbying, and overcharging customers. Regulators in other states have rejected previous NextEra mergers for the risks posed to ratepayers.

David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said: “A megamonopoly of this size, with the kind of money to buy political influence that NextEra will have, will be nearly impossible to regulate.”

3. Data Centers Shoot PJM Power Prices Up 76%

A report from PJM’s Independent Market Monitor found significant price spikes caused by data centers.

• In its Quarterly State of the Market report for PJM, the region’s Independent Market Monitor warned that data centers have caused “very large” and irreversible price impacts on customers throughout the thirteen-state region. The monitor warned of further, larger price impacts if the region fails to make significant changes before the June 2026 capacity auction.

• Significant price increases within PJM’s territory have caused the grid operator to receive major political blowback from politicians, many of whom have blamed PJM for the lack of capacity meeting data center-driven demand growth. The blowback has even led to a price cap in its capacity auctions, negotiated with PJM’s governors.

• The Monitor recommended that data centers and large load customers bring their own generation, or be required to curtail their load. As PJM experiences an energy supply crunch, it’s certainly worth revisiting its long-standing rules that disadvantage clean energy sources in its interconnection queue.

4. FEMA Looks Like Trump’s Next Target

As recommended in Project 2025, a Trump Administration review panel recommended gutting FEMA and federally-provided flood insurance.

• The Trump Administration’s FEMA Review Council has issued a set of recommendations to the President, signaling the likely next steps for the administration in its long-running efforts to reshape, and at times gut, the country’s disaster management system. Among the Review Council’s recommendations were to privatize the National Flood Insurance Program, as recommended under Project 2025, and raise the threshold for federal aid and involvement in disaster recovery.

• The effort to privatize flood insurance federally appears similar to Florida’s efforts to “depopulate” its own Citizens Property Insurance Corporation by forcing customers of the insurer of last resort onto private market plans with lower levels of coverage and higher premiums.

• The proposed plan would significantly reduce long-term federal support for municipalities after disasters, a key element of disaster recovery which research shows is critical for long-term economic stability and recovery.

5. Georgia PSC Race Shapes Up

Democrats finalize their candidates for two races to determine control of the Georgia PSC, while Republican candidates are still unclear.

• On Tuesday, voters in Georgia went to the polls to choose candidates in the primaries for the District 3 and District 5 Public Service Commission races. In District 3, Democrat Peter Hubbard won his primary unopposed, while Republican Fitz Johnson, who lost to Hubbard last year, is leading his opponent by 0.38%, though has not yet claimed victory. In District 5, Democrat Sheila Edwards won her primary with 55%, while two Republican candidates will head to a runoff election as neither reached 50%.

• Hubbard made headlines in 2025 alongside Alicia Johnson when they defeated two incumbent Republicans on the GaPSC, becoming the first Democrats to win constitutional statewide offices in Georgia in twenty years. Hubbard is required to run for reelection this year, since his race in 2025 was to fill the final year of a six-year term.

• With the two races this year, Democrats could secure an outright majority on the Georgia PSC, which Hubbard and Johnson have both said they’d work with to lower rates and get more clean energy on the grid.

Georgia Public Service Commissioner Peter Hubbard: “We’re going to be making the case this year that we need to finish the job, and despite the fact that we’ve got a beachhead with two Democrats on the Public Service Commission, we’re still not going in the right direction.”

SPOTLIGHT: Microsoft Rumored to Scale Back Commitments — Risking Clean Energy Innovation and Impact

Earlier this month, tech giant and data center behemoth Microsoft was rumored to be considering dropping its commitment to match 100% of its hourly electricity use with clean energy by 2030. Microsoft initially announced its 100% hourly match goal in 2021, and has set the so-called “gold standard” of corporate renewable energy procurement.

For the most part, corporate renewable customers seek to match energy on an annual basis, buying renewable energy credits to cover their aggregated annual energy consumption. New research, though, shows that the hour-matched strategy can cut 42 times more carbon emissions compared to the annual-matched basis.

Importantly, hourly-matching strongly incentivizes battery investment, since customers can’t aggregate annual solar production to cover energy consumed at night, which would otherwise be allowed in annual-matching scenarios. Corporate 24/7 commitments have been a crucial ingredient in driving clean electricity investment and innovation.

A week after Congressional Democrats opened an inquiry into the Trump Administration’s billion-dollar taxpayer deal to cancel wind projects, as Americans are increasingly feeling the price of electricity, New York State’s largest pension fund has asked, as an investor, if the company is jettisoning value and harming their business.

1. Utilities Spend Big Against Steyer

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has become a target of major utilities in the election, and other election updates.

• California utility PG&E, the largest in the state, is injecting $10 million into anti-Tom Steyer super PACs alongside the real estate and construction industries. Steyer is a leading candidate and has the backing of environmental and climate advocates.

• Steyer has a long record on climate change: he led the campaign for Prop. 39, which closed a tax loophole for oil companies to fund schools. He also founded Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate-centered investment firm, and NextGen America, a progressive organization that began as climate-focused and been run one of the largest youth voter registration drives in history. He’s also made climate change and energy affordability central to his campaign, including pledging to significantly expand clean energy and lowering guaranteed rates of return for utilities.

• Meanwhile, on Tuesday, voters in Ohio went to the polls to vote for the nominees in their gubernatorial race. Vivek Ramaswamy, former presidential candidate and anti-ESG campaigner, won the Republican nomination. Finally, voters in a hyper-rural county in Ohio narrowly upheld a ban on local solar and wind projects by a 53-47% margin.

2. Insurance Commissioners Issue New Data Call

Insurance regulators in all states are looking to better understand how climate change is impacting the insurance market.

• State insurance regulators are issuing a new call for data from insurance companies, representing internal records showing losses caused by climate-driven perils in each ZIP code in which they sell policies. The call is being overseen by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which supports the country’s insurance regulators.

• This is the first data call since 2024, in which the Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office collaborated with the NAIC to “better understand” climate-related impacts on insurance markets. The new data call seeks to capture a larger share of the regulated market nationwide.

• Data quality remains a significant gap in efforts to assess and reform the country’s decentralized and distributed insurance industry as climate change continues to increase physical and financial risk across the country.

Jordan Haedtler, climate finance policy lead at Climate Cabinet, said,

“We literally don’t have a full and comprehensive system for monitoring insurance market data. There’s so much salience on this issue that [insurance] departments of various ideological leanings are at least finding data collection to be in their interests.”

3. West Coast Energy Market Goes Live

On May 1, a new Western energy market turned on, linking utilities across multiple states.

• On Friday, a group of California utilities joined with Oregon’s second-largest utility to officially launch CAISO’s extended day-ahead market (EDAM). CAISO is the grid operator for most of California and part of Nevada.

• Now, CAISO will be able to freely optimize generation and transmission between Oregon-based utility PacifiCorp and California-based utilities, essentially pooling all their assets together. The move is likely to save consumers significant dollars, as one CAISO study showed the West could save up to $1.2 billion annually.

• Larger markets and interregional planning make the grid better, more resilient, and more efficient. In EDAM, Oregon customers will now see the benefit of plentiful solar power and battery storage from Southern California, while Southern California customers will see the benefit of Northwestern hydropower. Organized markets let each utility tap into a much larger pool of generation capacity.

PacifiCorp’s Vice President of Energy Supply, Mike Wilding, said,

“These organized markets are the best tool that we have available to control our costs for our customers. The way they do that is they leverage larger footprints, a larger pool of generation and more transmission connectivity than PacifiCorp has on its own, which now means you can move electricity where it needs to go more effectively and more efficiently.”

4. Virginia Transmission Sets Back Renewables

Failures in Virginia’s transmission planning process have blocked multiple gigawatts-worth of renewables from adding to the grid.

• Data from PJM shows that more than 100 new energy-generating facilities since 2018 have been “withdrawn or significantly delayed” by failures to upgrade existing transmission or build new transmission capacity in Virginia. Most of those have been clean energy projects.

• The review of delayed and blocked projects found dozens of projects by Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest investor-owned utility. The cancelled projects would have added 5 GW to Virginia’s grid.

• Transmission remains a significant bottleneck to the energy transition, particularly as the country’s aging grid meets new large loads in data centers and struggles to handle new generation capacity in the clean energy boom. Interconnections and transmission pitfalls have long been a barrier to bringing new, much-needed clean energy online.

5. Salt River Project To Develop 3GW of Arizona Solar

The state’s largest public utility will build 3GW of new solar as a new clean energy majority takes their positions on the Board.

• The Salt River Project, a public utility serving 2 million Arizonans, announced that it will partner with developer NextEra Energy Resources to develop 3 GW of new solar capacity in Arizona by 2034. The plan will add 500 MW of new solar per year from 2029 to 2034.

• SRP is seeking to “double” its generating capacity as it seeks to meet rising load growth, and this addition will triple the total amount of solar it has on its grid. Around 1GW of its existing solar was also developed by NextEra.

• Despite its relatively low profile, SRP saw headlines in recent months as it held elections for its board system, in which a pro-clean energy slate won an outright majority, defeating candidates backed by the far-right political group Turning Point USA.

6. Tipping Points Threaten Global Stability

Climate change’s irreversible thresholds threaten fundamental global climate patterns that undergird the modern world.

• As climate change brings about felt impacts via climate-driven disasters, its sub-surface impacts on global currents are becoming more clear, and worrying. Experts have identified the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) as “under threat” from climate change as warming seas and temperatures, melting ice, and more rainfall change the balance of the North Atlantic.

• The AMOC is a critical system of ocean currents, which includes the famous “Gulf Stream,” keeps much of the world as it is today: it keeps Europe warm, and cools down areas close to the equator. As climate change weakens the streams of currents, AMOC approaches a “tipping point,” in which the climate-driven changes weaken it to the point of collapse.

• Countries, companies, and key decisionmakers are now having to think about these threats more clearly. In late 2025, Iceland declared the potential collapse of AMOC an “existential threat” and a key national security concern. Meanwhile, JPMorgan is responding to client interest in understanding tipping points and navigating uncertainty.

SPOTLIGHT: New Recommendations for Insurance Regulators

A new report from Brian Shearer, Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, argues that there’s a “greedflation” problem in insurance markets, and outlines steps that regulators and policymakers can take to address it.

The report argues that insurers are spending too little of the money made from people’s premiums on paying out claims, creating a low “loss-ratio.” A loss-ratio is the term for the proportion of premium-revenue paid as claims. The report finds that most insurers’ loss-ratios are between 50% and 70%, and have been falling for years. Shearer argues that property and casualty insurers should be held to a similar standard as health insurers, which are required under the Affordable Care Act to spend a minimum of 80% of their premiums on medical care and improving the quality of care.

This ratio matters for families as climate-related risks increase financial risks to properties. The report also argues that insurers spend too much money on unnecessary expenses, advising lawmakers to cap or prohibit insurers from spending corporate dollars on private jets, lobbying, campaigning, and excessive advertising.

The Virginia Governor spotlights energy and energy affordability in her first 100 days in office.

• Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has made energy, especially energy affordability, a focus of her first hundred days since taking office in January. Spanberger was elected in 2025 after focusing much of her campaigning on tackling rising electricity rates in Virginia.

• Spanberger has signed a number of bills aiming to lower energy bills, including legislation to allow utilities to assign costs of servicing data centers directly to those large loads, to simplify transmission permitting, and legislation to develop demand flexibility programs for large loads.

• By January 2027, new governors will be taking office in at least 18 states, and are looking at a similar set of challenges: Spanberger’s focus on affordability and energy is perhaps an indication of what should be on their agendas moving forward.

2. Gas Plants Get Even More Expensive

The cost of fuel isn’t the only thing driving up the cost of gas generation.

• As the World Bank is warning of the “largest energy price surge” since 2022, new analysis from Bloomberg’s BNEF found that the cost of building natural gas power plants has jumped 66% in just two years.

• While the number of gas plants and projects in the pipeline is rising dramatically to meet data center-driven load growth, projects are significantly more expensive, going above $2,100 per KW of capacity, compared to just $1,500 in 2023.

• On top of higher infrastructure costs, natural gas is a historically volatile and geopolitically vulnerable commodity: it is incredibly sensitive to global economic and political upheaval. While gas prices remain lower in the United States, rising LNG exports mean that domestic gas consumers will see prices rise, which we’ve warned about.

3. Mills Vetoes Data Center Pause

Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed what would have been the country’s first moratorium on data centers.

• Last week, Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed LD 307, which would have banned new data centers in the state larger than 20 MW for at least two years. The bill, which passed the legislature in April, would have been the country’s first data center moratorium.

• As the politics of data centers and AI gets more contentious, Maine isn’t the only state to consider moratoriums: at least 13 other states have proposed temporary bans on data centers. In other states, lawmakers are interested in paring back incentives for data centers as the costs of tax breaks reach into the billions.

• Still, there’s more states and policymakers can do to protect ratepayers. Innovative rate designs, direct-cost assignment, and special rate classes for large loads can be used to help insulate ratepayers. States can also look to data centers’ significant capital and time-sensitivity as a means of bringing and encouraging more investment in clean energy and critical grid upgrades.

4. Colorado Senate Advances Geothermal Bill

The state is looking to join other states in the west as leaders in geothermal energy.

• The Colorado Senate on Tuesday voted to advance SB 142 in a landslide with significant bipartisan support. The bill seeks to encourage geothermal energy development in Colorado, by authorizing municipal governments to build their own geothermal systems, allowing larger community geothermal projects, and requiring the state to develop recommendations on geothermal production.

• Colorado has long lagged behind other states in the Mountain West when it comes to geothermal, but has made an aggressive push in the last five years in an attempt to cultivate the resource beneath the ground. The State Energy Office operated a $12 million geothermal grant program and an investment tax credit for geothermal projects.

• Geothermal energy is a critical piece of the transition towards a zero-emission economy: geothermal energy can be used to provide energy to meet demand without any emissions. Recent advances in next-generation geothermal have unlocked significant new geothermal resources, including 90 GW of new capacity that could be “economically built.”

Sen. Matt Ball, who sponsored SB 142, said, “Colorado is set up really well for geothermal energy. We think this is a really innovative and exciting place for Colorado to invest to achieve all of our emissions goals in the next several years.”

5. DeSantis Preempts Local Climate Rules

The Florida Governor, a long-time culture warrior, signed a bill prohibiting local governments from adopting “net zero” rules.

• On Earth Day last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law blocking local governments from adopting any rules or setting policies that would in any way take into account climate change or emissions impact, including transitioning municipal fleets to EVs, requiring low-emission construction materials, and tracking local emissions.

• The new Florida law will put a number of key local initiatives at risk, including many that sought to protect Florida communities from climate impacts like worsening hurricanes, sea level rise, and other climate damages.

• It’s not the only time DeSantis has moved to restrict local governments that disagreed with him: in 2021, DeSantis signed HB 839, a bill which preempts local governments from restricting fossil fuel infrastructure. And DeSantis also removed all mentions of climate change from state codes two years ago, a move many at the time criticized for being willfully blind to many of Florida’s risks.

Miami-Dade County Republican Commissioner Raquel Regalado said, “Every time they preempt us, they take tools away, right? [They] don’t necessarily understand the unintended consequences.”

6. Trump Reaffirms Biden Administration’s Transformer Orders

President Trump issued a Defense Production Act Section 303 Order to support domestic transformer and grid equipment manufacturing, the same move made by President Biden in 2022.

• Last week, President Trump issued a Section 303 Order under the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to take a more active role in supporting certain technologies. The order specifically targets transformers and grid equipment that are critical to meeting the demands of the grid, and can support new clean energy connection to the grid.

• The Section 303 Order allows the federal government and critical agencies, like the Department of Defense and Department of Energy, to purchase and make financial commitments to support these technologies. President Biden issued a similar order in 2022 to support the domestic manufacturing of critical energy technology, including transformers.

• Transformers have been a significant bottleneck in the global energy transition for years, as global supplies have always lagged behind the need for them on the grid. Still, it’s unclear what this order will actually do now: multiple companies are already bringing new manufacturing capacity online, which will begin bringing new supplies in 2027, and not sooner. Meanwhile, the administration’s other policies, particularly on trade and tariffs, have significantly worsened the supply shortage of key grid technologies like transformers.

Spotlight: Pleiades At Climate Week

Thanks to all those who joined us to cover the wide-ranging political, policy, economic, and real-world implications of the ongoing energy transition, and a special thank you to our partners Climate Cabinet Education, the World Resources Institute, and Natural Resources Defense Council for working with us on these three great panels.

Experts, practitioners, and policymakers came together where climate finance, policy, infrastructure, risk, and the real world all meet. With over 200 people registered across three events, we had awesome turnout and really fruitful conversations about some tough issues. To those of you who attended and this is your first issue of Transition Finance Weekly, welcome!! We’re so happy you’re here.

1. ERCOT Claims Its Load Could Quadruple In Six Years

A new forecast from Texas’s grid operator shows load growth even higher than previous, skyhigh estimates.

• ERCOT released a new CEO update this week, in which it said that its forecasted load could grow as high as 368 GW by 2032, a massive increase over the current 2026 load forecast of 98 GW. A similar presentation by the CEO in 2024 anticipated 152 GW of total system load by 2032.

• But it’s not a realistic number: regulators and ERCOT officials alike have said that the forecast is likely an overestimate, and it’s likely closer to the highest-end possible scenario.

• Still, it’s clear that demand for energy is growing, in Texas and everywhere else. The impetus is on policymakers to make sure the growth in demand continues to drive the clean economy, domestic energy supply chains, and the energy transition, while protecting ratepayers from negative impacts.

2. Repurposed EV Batteries Get New Life

A new deal between EV maker Rivian and storage company Redwood Materials will give new life to Rivian batteries.

• Last week, EV maker Rivian and battery recycling company Redwood Materials announced a partnership to repurpose “second-life” EV batteries to provide storage at a Redwood Materials factory in Normal, Illinois.

• Second-life batteries are batteries that have reached the end of their useful life as electric car batteries, but are still useful as stationary grid-serving batteries.

• The new partnership is an example of the value of a domestic energy supply chain, and is an example of how to deliver one step further toward a circular economy.

3. Georgia Power To Let Businesses Sponsor New Clean Energy

Georgia’s largest utility will let its customers pay for new clean energy resources through the utility.

• The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a new plan by Georgia Power to allow major commercial and industrial power users to identify and sponsor new clean energy projects across the state. The program, called the “Customer-Identified Resource” (CIR) Program, comes as data centers are flocking to Georgia and gives a pathway for those large loads to pay their own way — for clean power.

• The CIR program will work by having customers pay a monthly tariff to Georgia Power to cover the cost of constructing and operating new renewable energy projects, along with a guaranteed rate of return to the utility. The program also allows 25% of potential savings to be shared with other Georgia Power customers.

• However, the program allows up to 3 GW of customer-sponsored resources by 2035, which Georgia Power will use to satisfy a majority of its 4 GW target of new clean energy.

“These large customers are willing to put down capital on the front end and take on the risk,” said Katie Southworth, CEBA’s deputy director for market and policy innovation in the South and Southeast. ​“This program opens up the procurement pathways.”

4. Hawaii Closer To Requiring Polluters Pay For Their Impact

A Hawaii bill cleared major legislative milestones, bringing new potential pathways for recovering the costs of climate change from polluters.

• Last week, the Hawaii House advanced SB1166 in a floor vote, a bill which authorizes the state and insurers to sue large fossil fuel companies for the costs associated with climate-driven disasters. The Senate and House are now resolving their differences after the bill was amended in the House.

• Meanwhile, in California, the Senate Insurance Committee failed to advance a similar bill after it cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The bill, SB982, would have allowed the Attorney General to sue major polluters for their role in contributing to climate-attributable disasters.

• These bills have faced significant opposition in legislative proceedings as the oil and gas industry has funded efforts to pass legislation at the state and federal levels to give the industry legal immunity from paying for the costs associated with their business.

• In Congress this week, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced a bill to give the oil industry “sweeping immunity” from legal and financial accountability, including from state lawsuits against th

5. Michigan AG Asks Courts To Examine PSC Approval For Data Center Contracts

AG Nessel is seeking to unseal and examine “special contracts” signed between DTE and a data center developer.

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has once again filed to challenge a utility, as the Michigan PSC approved DTE Energy’s special power contract with a 1.4 GW data center planned south of Ann Arbor. Nessel is seeking to invalidate the PSC’s approval of the contracts, after the Commission rejected her earlier efforts to review the secret contracts.

• Nessel previously requested a contested rate hearing before the PSC, seeking the right to review the “still heavily redacted” contracts, verify DTE’s claims about customer affordability, and verify adequate ratepayer protections. Nessel said she is seeking “clarity” on the contracts, stating that they will set a precedent for all future data center development in the state and their deals with utilities.

• A big challenge for communities facing data center development has been transparency, with key proposal details shrouded from the public eye — and sometimes even from the key legislators and policymakers.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said, “Our utility companies are preparing to bring aboard massive new data centers in the years to come. On these first, precedential contracts, we must have clarity from the Court, and hold the MPSC accountable to the law.”

6. VA Clean Energy and Grid Provisions Signed into Law, with Amendments from Spanberger

VA Governor Spanberger amended two key energy bills, signing others, after campaigning on electricity affordability in November.

• Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned heavily on energy affordability in her 2025 gubernatorial race, amended two bills passed by the legislature: amending two bills to reduce how much money Dominion can spend on undergrounding wires and reducing the rate of return Dominion is allowed to earn on its expenses. The legislature will need to concur with them before they can take effect.

• Spanberger amended one bill, HB 1393, which extends an existing program that allows Dominion Energy to underground power lines, and requires the State Corporation Commission to approve lines with a per-mile cost of less than $750,000. Spanberger changed the bill to limit the per-mile cost at $900,000, and gave the SCC greater discretion in rejecting deals.

• Meanwhile, Spanberger also wants to revise Dominion’s authorized rate of return, the amount of money it’s allowed to earn on its investments, from 9.8% to 9.3% when the SCC conducts its next rate review.

Meet Pleiades at SF Climate Week

We spend a lot of time thinking about how climate conversations get siloed. Energy people talk to energy people. Transportation advocates talk to transportation advocates. Insurance wonks talk to insurance wonks.

But the threads connect.

On April 21, Pleiades Strategy is hosting a full day of conversations at SF Climate Week with some of our favorite thinkers and doers digging into topics that deeply matter — the Pleiades Salon. Three conversations, one through-line: the places where climate risk, the energy transition, economic opportunity, and policy collide in ways that demand our collective attention.

We hope you’ll join us.

Tuesday, April 21 | San Francisco

1. Data Centers Draw From State Budgets As Wallet Impacts Get Sharper

Data centers are costing governments larger and larger amounts of money, as energy done wrong costs ratepayers too.

• The Texas Comptroller’s office found that the state will lose out on $3.2 billion in state sales tax revenue as a result of the state’s tax exemption for certain data center project developers. Texas isn’t the only one, either: Virginia’s tax breaks for data centers cost the state $1.6 billion in missed revenue last year.

• As a result, more states are considering paring back or entirely eliminating state incentives for data centers, partially because the incentives themselves are secondary considerations for data center developers who are prioritizing fundamentals like land and energy.

• Meanwhile, the structure of energy deals themselves are just as important: without the right safeguards, state policies, and utility approaches, data centers can be incredibly costly for existing ratepayers. It’s on policymakers to reclaim their authority to exercise the appropriate oversight and supervision of continued data center development, without harming state budgets and ratepayer wallets.

2. Clean Energy Slate Wins in Arizona

Clean energy-supportive candidates won a majority on the Salt River Project utility’s board.

• Last week, a slate of candidates broadly supportive of renewables and clean energy won a majority of the seats on the Salt River Project’s board. SRP is Arizona’s largest public utility, and delivers power to more than 2 million customers.

• The races drew attention, in part because of the SRP’s unusual system of awarding one vote per acre to landowners in its service territory, and also because the far-right advocacy group Turning Point USA endorsed its own slate of candidates.

• Though two TPUSA-backed candidates won seats on the board, the Clean Energy Team swept the remaining races and won an outright majority on the board. SRP’s board will be majority pro-renewables for the first time in its history.

Ken Clark, one of the new Clean Energy Team board members, said,

“Starting when we’re sworn in, S.R.P. will be the largest utility in the country with a majority vote of clean energy supporters. There has been a pent-up demand, especially in Arizona, for people to have their energy freedom, to have solar panels, batteries and more energy-efficient measures.”

3. Climate Costs Are Already Costing Households $900 Per Year

The costs of climate change aren’t a far off abstraction: they’re here, and getting bigger.

• According to research from a trio of economists, climate change is costing the average American household around $900 per year, a figure with significant geographic variance. For 10% of counties, the cost is significantly higher at $1,300 per year per household.

• Insurance costs alone, driven upward by the increasing frequency and severity of climate-driven disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, account for a majority of the direct costs to households. Higher insurance costs are contributing to a $600 increase in household expenditures, up to $1,000 in the highest-cost areas.

• In total, the aggregation of these costs amounts to $110 billion per year in the United States, a figure that will continue to grow absent additional climate action.

4. Oklahoma’s Highest Court Rules Anti-ESG Law Unconstitutional

After years of litigation, the Oklahoma’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act is dead.

• The Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a permanent injunction against the state’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022, upholding a 2024 lower court decision ruling the law as unconstitutional. Oklahoma’s EDEA was one of the first anti-ESG laws passed nationwide, and required the state to blacklist companies that allegedly “boycott” fossil fuel companies.

• Though the law was blocked on constitutional grounds as a result of a retiree-initiated lawsuit, it also significantly increased costs to taxpayers, who were forced to pay $180 million in additional borrowing costs because of restrictions put in place via the EDEA.

• Oklahoma’s law isn’t the only anti-ESG law blocked either: a federal court struck down a similar law in Texas, which required the Comptroller to develop a “business blacklist.” And in Missouri, an anti-ESG rule proposed by the Secretary of State, which would have required investment advisors to make politically-charged statements, was struck down by a federal judge.

5. Coal Plants Aren’t Operating, Despite DOE Orders

“Emergency” orders by the Trump Administration don’t make the coal math work.

• Three coal-fired power plants, which were ordered to stay open beyond their closure dates, are not operating. The Trump Department of Energy has used little-accessed federal emergency authorities to force coal power plants to stay open past planned closures, contradicting what utilities, grid operators, and states say they need.

• Generators at the Washington State Centralia power plant, Craig in Colorado, and R.M. Schahfer in Indiana didn’t generate any electricity in January. Tri-State Generation & Transmission in Colorado, the owner of the Craig Power Station in Colorado, formally objected to the DOE’s order.

• Meanwhile, as states, consumer advocates, and environmental groups sue the administration over its coal orders, the costs for utilities and ratepayers are mounting: the costs of keeping just one Michigan coal plant open have ballooned to over $135 million in less than one year. Even without generating power, Craig Station costs $80 million per year to keep operational.

Spotlight: Oil and Gas Industry Looks to Liability Shield

Fresh off its campaign to toxify corporate climate efforts, key anti-ESG leader Will Hild and donor Leonard Leo are organizing a new campaign to pass measures giving the oil and gas industry a liability shield against the damages their products have created. This replicates a playbook from the gun industry to avoid liability for the harms their products perpetuate. In 2026, Utah became the first state to pass measures to protect the oil and gas industry from litigation. The oil and gas industry is also fighting tooth-and-nail against measures in other states that would require the industry to pay for the costs caused by their extensive pollution.

Former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones characterized the efforts as “beyond dangerous.” Jones argues that making polluters pay is one of the most important avenues for funding climate change mitigation and recovery efforts, especially as the Trump Administration slashes federal disaster funding and climate-related programming.

Pleiades at SF Climate Week

We spend a lot of time thinking about how climate conversations get siloed. Energy people talk to energy people. Transportation advocates talk to transportation advocates. Insurance wonks talk to insurance wonks.

But the threads connect.

On April 21, Pleiades Strategy is hosting a full day of conversations at SF Climate Week with some of our favorite thinkers and doers digging into topics that deeply matter — the Pleiades Salon. Three conversations, one through-line: the places where climate risk, the energy transition, infrastructure, and policy collide in ways that demand our collective attention.

We hope you’ll join us.

🗓 Tuesday, April 21 | San Francisco

🔗 Link here

1. California Earthquake Authority Releases Wildfire Study

As ordered by the state legislature and Gavin Newsom, the Wildfire Fund Administrator issued recommendations to overhaul California’s insurance and energy landscapes.

• The California Earthquake Authority, which manages the Wildfire Fund, came out with its final recommendations after a multi-month examination of the state’s insurance market and electricity system, which included nearly 80 submissions from environmental, consumer, industry, business groups, and government agencies. The study was mandated by SB 254, a bill passed in the wake of the 2025 wildfires that added $18 billion to the wildfire fund.

• The report falls short of endorsing a specific policy path forward, but issues a number of recommendations under three main categories, including how to manage physical risks, how to allocate risks and “burdens,” and what the state’s potential role could be in the market.

• Though it gives plenty of options for lawmakers to consider, the report is unequivocal in its declaration that any real solution to the insurance crisis must come with real, serious physical risk reduction measures at the property and community level.

2. Pair of Pennsylvania Bills Will Enhance Existing Electricity Assets

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania are considering bills to deploy advanced transmission technologies and VPPs to enhance the grid.

• As part of a growing trend across the country, lawmakers in Pennsylvania are considering two bills to increase the grid’s ability to take advantage of existing resources on the grid, HB 2223 and HB 2264. HB 2223 would require utilities to consider deploying advanced transmission technologies and HB 2264 would require utilities to develop virtual power plants.

• Both solutions would make the grid significantly more efficient and allow grid operators and utilities to increase grid utilization. And virtual power plants in particular have emerged as a significant opportunity to coordinate and aggregate distributed resources to potentially add up to 60 GW of capacity to the grid by 2030.

• The bills face significant headwinds, though: the legislature has been slow to take up bills, even those backed by Governor Shapiro. Strategies to take advantage of existing grid assets also don’t fix Pennsylvania’s relative lack of clean generation assets, which exists in part thanks to the state’s arcane rules which add $6,000 to the cost of residential solar systems.

House Energy Committee Chair Rep. Elizabeth Fielder said, “We know that we are dealing with serious supply chain problems and demand problems, and that we need to do everything we can to get as much as possible out of our existing infrastructure.”

3. Minnesota Approves Xcel’s “Distributed Capacity” Program

Minnesota regulators approved the state’s first virtual power plant, but distributed energy advocates criticize the utility-centric model.

• Xcel Energy received approval from Minnesota regulators on its Capacity*Connect program, a utility-owned 200 MW distributed storage and VPP program. Xcel has permission to develop up to 200 MW of energy storage across its grid with 1 to 3 MW batteries.

• The VPP program is unique: most VPP programs use customer-sited and customer-owned energy resources. Meanwhile, Xcel itself is operating a VPP program in its Colorado service territory.

• Though Capacity*Connect leaves out customer-sited resources, it’s revealing from the company and an acknowledgement that a substantial piece of the future of the grid will be distributed, including those operated by major investor-owned-utilities.

4. Nevada’s Largest Utility To Join New California Market

Nevada’s PUC will allow NV Energy to join CAISO’s new electricity market in a game-changing move.

• Last Friday, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission approved NV Energy’s request to join the California Independent System Operator’s new Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). CAISO, which manages California’s electricity grid, is proposing a new energy market to share energy and grid resources across a wider geography, through EDAM.

• EDAM is launching May 1, 2026 with PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric, with more grid operators and utilities slated to join in the next year. EDAM will also provide significant benefits for DER and VPP integration into a wider wholesale market.

• The launch of a new Western energy market is a significant milestone for the grid. As with “smaller scale” energy system upgrades, linking regions with coordinated energy markets and transmission unlocks more capacity everywhere and reduces the need to build additional generation.

5. Trump Admin Takes Axe To Forest Service

As fire risk grows and the West approaches wildfire season, the Trump Administration is moving to close three quarters of its forest research facilities.

• The Trump Administration is moving to massively reorganize the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of federal land and works on wildfire suppression and mitigation across the country. As part of the cuts, the administration is shuttering 57 of the agency’s 77 research stations and moving its headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah from Washington, D.C.

• The move is reminiscent of Trump’s reorganization of the Bureau of Land Management during his first term, in which he moved the agency’s headquarters to Colorado from Washington. His chief of staff at the time claimed that moving agency headquarters was a “wonderful way” to get federal employees to quit. Some anticipate that the Forest Service will lose as much as half of its workforce in the move.

• The Forest Service could be unequipped for what is expected to be a more-dangerous-than-usual wildfire season across the Western United States, which is already dealing with a significantly warmer and drier winter than usual.

A prescribed burn site at the Crossett National Forest research station, one of the long-standing USFS research hubs that has added to our understanding of scientific forest management and resource management that is at risk from cuts to USFS science programs. Taken on a field trip by Frances in 2014.

Data shows natural gas is driving increases and volatility in energy prices.

• A new analysis published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Brattle Group on the state of electricity prices found that increases in the price of natural gas drove generation and wholesale electricity prices higher across the country. The effects, like most factors in electricity markets, were not evenly distributed across geographies.

• The report found that electricity prices had been insulated from excessive price increases over a six year period from 2019-2025 as a result of low natural gas prices, but fluctuations in commodity prices drove significant volatility in electricity prices. States that received more of their electricity from natural gas saw significantly more volatility in annual electricity prices.

• Natural gas exports will also worsen the price impacts of domestic natural gas use as more domestic producers seek to sell gas to the more expensive international markets, especially amid the U.S.-Iran conflict’s impact on energy markets.

• In short, the report affirms that relying on volatile commodities for fuel is a vulnerability for cost control. Technologies like wind and solar, which don’t rely on fuels, are free from this vulnerability.

From the report: “In 2025, the national-average price of natural gas delivered to electric generators increased 36% from the all-time low in 2024, pushing generation costs and real-time wholesale electricity prices higher.”

2. La Plata Leaves Tri-State, Lowers Costs and Increases Clean Portfolio

The Colorado distribution cooperative is leaving the Tri-State Generation and Transmission to pursue local affordable clean generation.

• On April 1, La Plata Electric Association, a Colorado-based distribution cooperative, exited its membership in the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, its longstanding wholesale generation and transmission provider.

• The move is expected to save La Plata 10% on its wholesale electricity costs and significantly reduce its emissions, savings realized through access to local clean generation, more market purchases, and an escape from legacy coal.

• The move away from Tri-State has been long-planned: the two coops signed an agreement in 2024 to terminate the contract and shift towards a continued relationship via PPAs for 40 MW of firm capacity and 40 MW of solar.

• In making their exit, La Plata in part took inspiration from the New Mexico Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, which pushed to leave Tri-State in 2016 and has since shifted to locally-sourced clean energy.

• In the meantime, Tri-State has made strides toward improving its resource mix and finances: it secured $2.5 billion in New ERA funds for modernization, has moved to procure significant solar and storage, and has offered new local generation for members.

La Plata Board President Nicole Pitcher said, “This is exactly why we made the decision to leave. I was proud to be part of that Board vote, and we’re already seeing it pay off for our members with lower costs, stable rates, and a cleaner, locally controlled power supply.”

3. Energy & Data Centers Take Center Stage in Texas

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick & Speaker Dustin Burrows highlight energy and data centers as priorities for the next Texas legislative session.

• On Friday, a day after House Speaker Dustin Burrows released his own list of priorities, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick asked state legislators to “study” a range of policy issues including energy and data centers ahead of the 2027 session. The Texas legislature does not hold regular legislative sessions in even years.

• Specifically, Patrick is asking legislators to review transmission policy, assess the impact of existing policies on the Texas grid, and examine the impact of energy-intensive technologies on the grid. Patrick also wants to examine “renewable energy decommissioning,” a common talking point among anti-renewable advocates seeking to block clean energy.

• Speaker Dustin Burrows similarly called on lawmakers to focus on energy issues, including developing microgrids and distributed energy resources, specifically as they relate to reliability and affordability for consumers.

4. California Resiliency & Insurance Study to Come Out April 7

The California Earthquake Authority will release a major study mandated by SB 254.

• On Tuesday, the California Earthquake Authority is expected to release the outcome of a multi-month study into California’s insurance markets, utilities, and resilience in the face of ever-increasing climate-driven disaster risk, primarily from wildfires.

• The CEA, which administers the California Wildfire Fund, was tasked with studying the state’s insurance market and resilience to catastrophes via SB 254, a major bill signed by Gavin Newsom in September 2025. Among other things, SB 254 also added $18 billion to the state’s Wildfire Fund, which faced near-depletion as a result of the 2025 Los Angeles fires.

• More than 80 groups and stakeholders have submitted commentary to the CEA as part of the study, but it’s unclear what the body will recommend. A separate SB 254-initiated report, by the California Public Utilities Commission, called for sweeping reforms to California’s insurance system, including by reining in utility liability, more risk sharing and pooling across different risk profiles, and changing the responsibility for wildfire mitigation.

• The SB 254 process has put a spotlight on the ways that climate-driven risks are reshaping the financial landscape, with taxpayers, ratepayers, and the insured (read: people) covering the tab across the board. Mapping these hidden climate costs makes it clear: fair and transparent investments in real, tangible risk reductions are crucial to California’s continued economic thriving.

5. MI, NY, MA — All Considering Virtual Power Plant Legislation

Lawmakers across the country are looking to allow the grid to take advantage of distributed, small-scale energy resources.

• Last week, a Michigan Senate committee voted to advance SB 731, a bill that would establish a framework for implementing VPP programs in the state, tasking the Public Service Commission with adopting program requirements within one year. The bill’s backers say that the bill will allow the state to take advantage of its plentiful distributed energy resources.

• Michigan’s not the only state moving on VPPs: a pair of bills in New York introduced in mid-March will require the utility and Department of Public Service to develop and deploy VPP programs if passed. In Iowa, legislators are considering legislation to require the Utilities Commission to develop VPP rules, and a Massachusetts bill would require utilities to develop VPPs.

• Across the country, policymakers are increasingly turning to VPPs as a means of addressing immediate affordability challenges and capacity needs on the grid. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who ran on energy affordability, signed a bill allowing Virginia’s electric cooperatives to deploy VPPs.

SPOTLIGHT: Florida Port Rejects LNG Bid

A week before the Space Coast successfully launched Artemis II to the moon, Port Canaveral Commissioners voted unanimously against selling a slice of Port-owned land to Berkshire Hathaway and Chesapeake Utilities, which sought to build an LNG liquefaction plant for the cruise and space industry. Liquefaction facilities also unlock the export of natural gas to international markets, further tethering U.S. gas prices to international market fluctuations.

The Port Canaveral Commissioners rejected the bid in part because the land is “a strategic port property,” and because of significant opposition from the community. The LNG facility would have been built less than a mile from hundreds of homes.

Attorney General Dana Nessel is trying to cut DTE’s proposed gas rate hike by 85%.

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said last week that she filed against DTE Energy’s request to increase its rates for all customers by 10%. Under DTE’s proposal, residential customers would see at least an 8% increase.

• Nessel criticized DTE in February when it announced that it would seek yet another rate hike, just days after the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $242 million rate hike for its electric service.

• Nessel isn’t alone here, either. Attorneys General are increasingly stepping into utility rate cases to defend their constituents’ pocketbooks as energy prices become more salient to customers. In Arizona, AG Kris Mayes has stepped in to block Tucson Electric Power’s proposed 14% rate increase, and North Carolina AG Jeff Jackson has stepped in to block multiple utility-proposed hikes.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, on DTE Energy’s proposed rate hikes: “It’s astonishing that our current system allows DTE to announce their next rate hike case less than one week after locking in a $242 million rate hike, all while the utility projects record profits.”

2. Massachusetts Sets New Energy Targets

Governor Maura Healey signs executive order setting new in-state clean energy deployment targets.

• Last week, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed an executive order ordering the state to bring 10 GW of new clean energy resources online by the end of 2035. The EO calls for 4 GW of new solar, and 3.5 GW of demand management capacity. Importantly, the EO also targets 5 GW of energy storage by 2035.

• Healey’s EO includes recommendations to support the development of new resources, including improving interconnection processes, supporting the expansion of wind generation, and expanding distributed resources including microgrids.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said, “While the President is taking American-built energy sources off the table, in Massachusetts, we are saying yes to more supply from more sources of energy. We are saying yes to American jobs and American energy independence. And we are saying yes to lowering energy bills for all.”

3. DOE Coal Orders Undermine Utility Planning, Face Resistance

Utilities are working to resist the Trump Administration’s emergency coal power plant orders as they undermine system planning.

• Since taking office, the Trump Administration has forced 16 power plants nationwide to stay open, regardless of their cost to operators, in a bid to increase coal consumption in the United States. The plants forced to stay open include Tri-State G&T Cooperative’s Craig Station in Colorado, Constellation’s Eddystone in Pennsylvania, Campbell Power Plant in Michigan, and Washington State’s Centralia plant.

• For state utility regulators, policymakers, and grid operators, the federal government’s politically-motivated efforts to boost coal are undermining their ability to plan for the future. The orders undermine state-level agreements, utility decisions, and laws binding utilities to decommissioning assets that they’ve concluded are too costly or inefficient to run.

• For utilities, the orders are unnecessarily driving up their costs and similarly affecting their long-term planning. Consumers Energy says that the order keeping Campbell open has cost ratepayers $135 million in just a few months. Meanwhile, Tri-State and Platte River Power Authority filed to block the order.

Pete Wychoff, Deputy Commissioner of Energy Resources for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, on the order keeping Campbell open in Michigan: “This is nuts … we are not happy and are repeating to anyone who asks that there is a coal plant in Michigan that is being forced to stay open.”

4. Geothermal Can Connect Faster Than We Knew

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) can achieve commercial operation within three to six years of project initiation — a timeline that aligns with near-term resource planning.

• A new white paper from the Center for Public Enterprise finds that novel enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) are ready for quicker deployment than previously thought. Unlike traditional geothermal systems, EGS uses horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, borrowed from oil and gas extraction, to use the Earth’s heat to generate electricity.

• The paper argues that new EGS projects can start producing power within three years of breaking ground on construction, timelines which look incredibly attractive compared to other sources of clean firm energy like nuclear and traditional geothermal.

• Even more key, EGS has extreme potential in displacing dirty generation, particularly due to its high capacity factor (over 80%) and its continued eligibility for a 30% investment tax credit. Coupled with the attractive timelines, the paper argues that western utilities should rush to include EGS in their next round of integrated resource planning processes.

5. Hochul Says She Can’t Meet Deadlines Of Law She Failed To Implement

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has delayed the implementation of the state’s landmark climate law, and now wants legislation to revise the goalposts.

• Governor Kathy Hochul wrote an op-ed calling for legislation to delay the implementation of New York’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, a landmark bill committing the state to 100% net-zero electricity by 2040. The law also binds New York to 40% GHG reduction by 2030 and 85% by 2050.

• Hochul is now arguing that the law is at odds with “affordability” and says that the state won’t be able to meet the targets. Hochul also claims that the Trump Administration’s war on renewables is undermining the buildout.

• But Hochul also failed to implement the law herself. Hochul’s administration failed to promulgate the rules and regulations required to achieve the cuts by 2024 as required by the bill. Hochul’s proposed rules would allow energy providers and homes to burn more dirty fuels for longer, exactly at the moment that those energy sources are skyrocketing in price.

SPOTLIGHT: Renewables Growing As Share of America’s Grid

Wind and solar grew to produce 17% of all U.S. electricity in 2025, up from less than 1% in 2005 according to the Energy Information Administration. Even amidst a “war” on renewables from the Trump Administration, renewables continue to drive growth in the electricity sector. In 2025, 93% of the 63 GW of grid additions were wind, solar, or storage.

Two Massachusetts and Rhode Island-based projects targeted by the Trump Administration are getting closer to full operations.

• On Friday night, the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts installed its final blades, completing construction at the 800 MW wind farm. Also on Friday, Revolution Wind, a 704 MW project near Rhode Island, began delivering power to New England’s grid.

• The two projects have faced significant hurdles in their long road to connect onto the grid. In December, President Trump issued a blanket stop-work order halting construction at the two offshore wind projects (and three more on the East Coast). Judges ruled against the administration in all five cases.

• While it marks a significant milestone, and a major victory for the politically castigated wind energy industry, the threats from the administration continue to shape the future of offshore wind. Just this week, the New York Times reported that the administration is planning to pay French energy giant TotalEnergies $1 billion to cancel its planned offshore wind developments off the coasts of New York and North Carolina.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said in a statement, “The affordable, homegrown power it delivers to Massachusetts residents and businesses will bring costs down as President Trump throws global markets into disarray.”

2. In Tenn., Distribution Utility Deploys Batteries

EPB of Chattanooga is supplementing its grid with new battery-based microgrids.

• In partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee-based utility EPB of Chattanooga says it has installed five microgrids with 58 MWh of energy storage and is planning two more. It expects to deploy another 45 MW of front-of-the-meter energy storage in the next year and is planning to have around 150 MW of storage on its grid within three years.

• EPB purchases its energy from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which caps self-generation for member utilities at 5% of their own load. EPB’s agreement with the TVA exempts storage from counting towards the limit, which allowed the utility to develop these storage sites.

• It’s another in a long list of examples of the different use-cases for batteries, all across the energy delivery chain. For EPB, it’ll help guarantee reliability to thousands of customers, while allowing it to shave off the peak of its demand.

3. Trump To Release Stored Petroleum

The United States is set to make its second-largest release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as Trump’s war with Iran escalates with attacks on fossil fuel infrastructure.

• Last week, the Trump Administration announced that it would release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest release since President Joe Biden’s 2022 release. This release will bring the SPR to its lowest levels since 1982.

• It’s the latest move from an administration desperate to lower energy prices that it sent skyrocketing when Trump launched attacks on Iran weeks ago. The United States and Israel have targeted key Iranian energy infrastructure, and Iran has done the same to American allies, forcing a halt of around 10 million barrels a day in oil production. Natural gas is a similar story: prices are spiking as a result of supply chain disruptions to LNG exports in the Gulf and attacks on production infrastructure.

• Short of time travel, there’s little the administration can do to lower energy prices immediately: a release from the SPR won’t hit the market for weeks and natural gas prices continue to move up. Meanwhile, the administration has relentlessly attacked the only surefire solution to reducing dependence on expensive, geopolitically vulnerable fuels: clean electrification.

4. South Dakota Limits Utilities’ Wildfire Liabilities

Governor Larry Rhoden signed a bill to protect utilities from liabilities related to wildfires.

• On March 5, South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden signed SB36, which bars the application of “strict liability” to utilities in wildfire-related lawsuits. Strict liability makes utilities responsible for harms they caused, whether or not they intended the harm or were negligent. The bill was sponsored by State Senator Steve Kolbeck, who also works at South Dakota utility Xcel Energy.

• The law requires utilities to file five-year fire mitigation plans. Under the new law, utilities will only be liable for damages if they fail to file fire mitigation plans or fail to follow their mitigation plans. The law also makes utilities liable for criminal intent or “wanton” misconduct.

• While the bill insulates utilities from risks and saves them money, it’s unclear whether those savings will actually make it to customers, particularly those who will see their insurance rates rise and fire victims with fewer options after suffering devastating damages.

5. Elevated Fire Risk After Historic Dry and Warm Winter

An incredibly warm and dry winter across the West has elevated wildfire risks through 2026.

• The National Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates responses to wild fires, warned that fire risk will be significantly elevated in 2026, especially compared to the 2025 fire season, after an especially dry winter. In 2025, wildfires burned a smaller-than-usual amount of acreage, but high-profile fires in Los Angeles, which killed 31 people and caused billions in damages, brought significant attention to fire risk.

• One of those Los Angeles wildfires, the Eaton Fire, was the first utility-caused wildfire since the creation of the California Wildfire Fund, and threatened to drain the entire fund in one fire. California passed legislation in 2025 to add $18 billion to the wildfire fund.

• The NICC is also warning of elevated fire risk in areas that are typically not considered at-risk from wildfires, including a significant share of the South and Southeast, from Texas to Virginia.

SPOTLIGHT: New Insurance Regulation Mapping Tool

Increasing pressure from rising insurance costs, elevated climate-related risks, and the growing damage caused by major disasters is shoving historically low-visibility political officeholders like insurance commissioners straight into the limelight.

A new tool from Revolving Door Project Researcher Kenny Stancil titled “Mapping Home Insurance Regulation” helps catalogue the differences between all 50 state offices charged with regulating insurance, including their budgets, staff, and authority over insurance rates.

Desperate for a fix for its oil price shocks, the Trump Administration looks to a refinery project that has failed to get off the ground for years.

• As the administration is scrambling to find solutions to the price shocks arising from its war in Iran, President Trump announced a “$300 billion” refinery project backed by Indian refiner Reliant Industries and America First Refining, led by John Calce. This is Calce’s fourth time trying to build a new refinery in Brownsville, with at least one of his past attempts leading to bankruptcy.

• This would be the United States’s first major refinery in 50 years, but has faced significant, sustained opposition from local residents, environmental advocates, and local business owners in Brownsville. Despite Trump’s claims that the refinery would be the “cleanest,” refineries of its kind are highly polluting and damaging to local communities. The facilities release toxins linked to cancer, heart disease, and neurological and reproductive damage.

• Still, the deal is extremely thin on details, and is vaguely reminiscent of Trump’s first administration’s promise to Wisconsinites: that Foxconn would bring billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs in development, which never materialized.

2. Texas County Pushes Renewables Ban

Steeped in anti-renewables disinformation, Van Zandt County, Texas moved to ban all renewable and battery project development.

• The Van Zandt County Commission in February approved a moratorium on all clean energy projects, including battery storage projects. The Commissioners cited AG Ken Paxton’s new “investigation” into “CCP-aligned” products used in Texas. Paxton has previously used tools of his office to threaten companies investing in the energy transition.

• The moratorium was heavily pushed by a newly-formed anti-renewable energy organization called the “Legislative Energy Action Foundation.” LEAF’s founder, Nancy White, has used extensive disinformation to attack clean energy.

Despite, not because of, political leaders like Paxton, Texas has emerged as an unlikely standard-bearer for the energy transition. That progress is now at risk if the state’s leadership continues to prioritize culture war politics over sound energy policy.

3. Policymakers Move To Maximize Existing Grid Connections

Legislators in Indiana and Virginia moved bills to allow energy developers to take advantage of “Surplus Interconnection.”

• Indiana and Virginia lawmakers passed two bills to create Surplus Interconnection Service, which will allow energy developers to connect to the grid at an existing facility’s interconnection point. The Indiana bill is now law, while Virginia’s version awaits Governor Abigail Spanberger’s signature.

• The SIS bills will allow energy developers, especially renewable and battery developers, to connect to the grid much faster, since grid operators typically study SIS much more quickly than standard interconnection requests.

• Existing evidence shows that projects connected via surplus interconnection are typically significantly cheaper than those needing a full interconnection review, largely due to the much shorter time frames.

Virginia Delegate Phil Hernandez, who sponsored Virginia’s bill, said, “We believe this could be one of the fastest, lowest-cost ways to add power to the grid.”

4. Culture Warriors Step Into Arizona Utility Elections

Far-right political organization Turning Point USA is endorsing candidates in the Arizona Salt River Project public utility races.

• The far-right advocacy group Turning Point USA endorsed a slate of candidates in Arizona’s Salt River Project Board elections. The Salt River Project is an Arizona-based public utility, and is one of the largest public utilities in the country.

• TPUSA’s slate is led by current Vice Chair Chris Dobson, who is also being backed by Arizonans for Responsible Growth. ARG has long positioned itself, and its candidates in Salt River Project, as being “growth-minded people.” ARG itself is backed largely by SRP contractors and companies with financial interests in the outcome of the races.

• TPUSA, co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, is most known for its rambunctious campus tours. With ties to fossil fuel funding and networks, TPUSA-led student organizing supported campus opposition to pro-climate fossil free divestment campaigns and Kirk’s content often highlighted climate denial.

As utility analyst Paul Walker put it, “The worry I have, and many others have, is that Turning Point wants SRP to stop building what’s economically rational and start building what scores political points. They have nobody with any background or training in the water or electric sectors, but that’s not stopping them from trying to tell Arizona voters how to shape the water and power future.”

5. Production Restarts At Georgia Solar Plant

Qcells restarted production at its Georgia solar plants after their cells were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

• Late last week, solar maker Qcells announced that it was once again back to “normal production” at its two factories in Dalton and Cartersville, Georgia, with a production capacity of 5.1 GW and 3.3 GW of solar panels respectively.

• In 2023, Qcells announced a $2.5 billion expansion of its investments in manufacturing in Georgia. Its expansion would bring the total solar manufacturing capacity to 8.4 GW a year and will create the first fully-integrated American solar supply chain.

• The QCells facilities are an example of the Inflation Reduction Act’s success in driving a renaissance in clean energy-oriented regional economic growth. Since the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” such projects have faced tough headwinds, with more than $35B in investments evaporating as a result. The domestic solar supply chain is critical to building long-term energy security, as recent weeks have demonstrated.

6. TransAlta Won’t Run Washington’s Last Coal Plant

Despite a DOE order delaying Washington’s last coal plant’s retirement date, IPP TransAlta says it likely won’t run the plant.

• TransAlta, which owns Washington’s last coal power plant, was planning to retire Centralia Unit 2 in December 2025, until Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an “emergency” order requiring it to stay online. Despite the order, TransAlta says the plant probably won’t need to run because the state is “flush” with other, mostly clean, power.

• It’s not the first time the administration has used this power to keep coal plants open past their planned retirements. Other utilities, including Tri-State in Colorado and Consumers Energy in Michigan, have been required to do the same and have opposed the administration’s moves, saying the named plants are economically uncompetitive.

• Washington State isn’t sitting on its hands either: the state is suing the administration to block the order, and it passed legislation to heavily tax Centralia’s energy output, with the intent of keeping it shut off.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson: “Washington is not going backward on clean energy. [This] keeps the state on track to phase out coal power as we have been planning to do so for the last 15 years.”

Amidst a highly fluid situation, the Trump Administration tries to mitigate energy price spikes as it triggers regional war.

• The Israeli and American-launched war against Iran in the Middle East has plunged the resource-rich region into chaos, as American-aligned Persian Gulf countries are now facing retaliatory strikes from Iran. QatarEnergy, which supplies 20% of the globe’s natural gas, is halting production and export of natural gas. A significant share of Israeli, Iraqi, and Saudi fossil fuel capacity is also halted.

• The war-driven disruptions are causing significant price spikes in global oil and gas prices. The price impact is also translating directly to consumers: gasoline prices in the United States jumped by nearly 20 cents since last week. The Trump Administration is reportedly offering insurance and US military assets to protect fossil fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, 80% of which are destined for Asian markets.

• This is yet another reminder of the significant risks inherent to fuel-based energy systems that go beyond simple infrastructure costs. Renewables must be a core part of each country’s energy security formula, and are key to protecting energy systems from geopolitical shocks.

Rocky Mountain Institute Founder Amory Lovins in Brittle Power (1982): “A key feature which helps to make these energy sources resilient is that they are renewable: they harness the energy of sun, wind, water, or farm and forestry wastes, rather than that of depletable fuels.”

2. Data Centers’ Other Reliability Threat

As recent incidents in Virginia have shown, data centers abruptly dropping off the power grid can present significant reliability risks for grid operators.

• In a series of incidents in 2024 and 2025, dozens of Virginia data centers suddenly dropped off the grid after problems from high-voltage power lines. The data centers totaled around 2,000 MWs worth of energy dropping off the grid virtually instantly.

• Grid operators are charged with keeping the grid stable. In the context of data centers, most of the attention goes to ensuring that data centers have access to enough power. But the opposite is also true: grid operators also have to make sure there is enough demand to meet real-time energy supply.

• While the Virginia incidents did not rise to the level of “emergency,” according to PJM, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has warned that the risk of larger grid impacts as a result of load shedding is growing with the growth of data centers.

Mike Bryson, Senior VP for Operations at PJM: “It didn’t cause an emergency, but I would say it caused concern. What we’re worried about is, what if that happens for 3,000 megawatts or 5,000 megawatts?”

3. CARB Sets Climate Disclosure Timeline

CARB will exempt insurers from meeting climate disclosure rules as other sectors prepare to report by August 16, 2026.

• Last week, the California Air Resources Board approved the California Greenhouse Gas Reporting and Climate Financial Risk Disclosure Initial Regulation, which sets up the regulatory framework under SB 253 and 261, two climate disclosure bills passed in 2023. CARB paused enforcement of SB 261 pending the outcome of litigation.

• SB 253 requires corporations that operate in California with over $1 billion in annual revenues to report Scope 1 and 2 emissions beginning in 2026, and Scope 3 emissions beginning in 2027.

• Over the objections of bill sponsor Senator Scott Wiener and former Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, CARB exempted insurance companies from complying with its regulations, claiming that they were subject to duplicative regulations by the California Department of Insurance. Wiener argued that the Board did not have the authority to circumvent the legislature’s intent to cover insurance companies, while Jones said that the CDI’s regulations were voluntary.

SB 253 sponsor Senator Scott Wiener, in response to CARB’s exclusion of insurance companies: “The Legislature’s intent with respect to the insurance industry is crystal clear. [...] The law of California is that the insurance industry is included in SB 253’s carbon disclosure requirement. I do not believe that the board has the authority to remove an industry that was included by the Legislature.”

4. California PUC Pushes More Renewables

California’s Utility Commission is looking for 6GW of clean grid additions before tax credits expire.

• Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed a new framework to add 6 GW of new clean energy to the grid between 2029 and 2032. The CPUC’s decision is driven largely by a desire to “pursue any viable projects” that can qualify for federal tax credits before they currently expire.

• The CPUC is seeking 2,000 MW of new clean capacity by 2030, and an additional 2,000 MW in each of 2031 and 2032. The development of the resource procurement plan is being done alongside CAISO’s transmission upgrade planning.

• California is continuing its leadership in renewable energy deployment, despite significant headwinds from the federal government, and has met RPS milestones ahead of schedule.

CPUC President Alice Reynolds said, “California is the model for how to proactively plan and successfully procure the clean energy assets capable of powering the world’s fourth largest economy.”

5. Matched Clean Capacity the Way Forward

Google is paying for its own clean capacity at its planned Minnesota data center.

• Google announced a new data center complex south of Minneapolis that drew attention not because of its size, but because of what will be the world’s largest iron-air battery. Google will partner with Xcel Energy and Form Energy, a battery maker, to power its data center campus with 1,400 MW of wind, 200 MW of solar, and a 30 GWh battery. Google will also help fund an Xcel-run distributed battery program.

• Google is becoming the first hyperscaler to use Form Energy’s unique battery chemistry. The company’s strategy isn’t all rosy, however: Form Energy has yet to finish its first commercial battery installation, and Google is looking to bring 179 diesel generators to a planned Indiana data center.

• Still, Google’s latest deal is a significant bet on long-duration energy storage, which could prove to be a significant leap in the already ongoing renewable and energy storage revolution.

SPOTLIGHT: Primary Elections in North Carolina and Texas

Voters went to the polls in North Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas on Tuesday, where most eyes watched the hotly contested Senate seat in Texas. In that race, Democrat James Tallarico will now face either incumbent Senator John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton in November pending the outcome of the GOP primary runoff. Paxton has been a key leader in the multi-state, activist-led anti-ESG campaign. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper won the Democratic Primary for Senate and Michael Whatley won the GOP nomination, setting the top of the ticket for a critical Senate race.

Down the ballot in North Carolina, the three Democrats who helped Republicans override Governor Josh Stein’s veto of SB 266 lost their seats by wide margins to challengers. SB 266, now law, suspended interim emissions reductions targets for Duke Energy, allows utilities to charge consumers for incomplete power plants, and is expected to cost North Carolinians $23 billion in future costs. Two of the candidates, Democratic Representatives Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, both of whom voted to override Stein’s veto on SB 266, each failed to break 30% support in their respective primaries.

This morning, Vanguard caved to pressure from Republican AGs, agreeing to a $29.5 million settlement without an admission of guilt to settle partisan accusations of breaching antitrust law. BlackRock and State Street remain in ongoing litigation.

1. California and Companies Continue Focus on Emissions

Today, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is holding a hearing on proposed climate-related financial disclosures — meanwhile, companies continue to invest in Scope 3.

• CARB is holding its first public hearing today on its draft regulations under California’s twin 2023 laws, SB 253 and SB 261, which require large companies to report their emissions and their climate-related financial risks. In November 2025, a U.S. Court of Appeals halted enforcement in SB 261 pending the outcome of an appeal, after a lower court ruled against the law’s challengers.

• California is moving forward with implementing SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, and is planning to set the first-year reporting deadline for companies covered by the law. Under the law, companies will need to report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions this year, with Scope 3 emissions reporting beginning in 2027.

• Meanwhile, new research indicates that companies are continuing to prioritize Scope 3 emissions reporting, despite policy uncertainty in the United States. As companies continue to face and contend with significant climate risks, which will continue to exist whether or not companies track them, standardized disclosure becomes all the more important for investors and corporate leaders.

2. Clean Energy Changes the Data Center Game

For data centers, meeting energy needs with renewable generation is one of the few things that increases public support.

• New data in polling by Climate Power, a climate-focused communications organization, finds that voters are significantly more supportive of data center development when paired with clean energy than fossil fuels.

• Overall, voters said they’d support renewable-powered data centers by a 25 point margin, while voters opposed data centers powered by fossil fuels by a margin of 16 points, representing a 41 percentage point swing in net support.

• For data center developers and hyperscalers, it’s yet another data point showing that there is a better way to build: with new, matched clean energy, particularly amidst the upswell of local opposition to data centers across the country.

SEIA Communications Director Seth Miller: “If data centers want to maintain their social license to operate... the need to BYONCE. (Bring Your Own New Clean Electricity)”

3. Insurers Worked To Undermine Climate Risk Rules

Insurance lobbyists fought as the world’s insurance regulators tried to set standards for climate risk.

• New research from accountability researchers InfluenceMap found that insurers “mobilized to slow down efforts” at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) to set global standards for climate-related insurance risk management. The insurance industry’s lobbying groups, many of which are based in the United States, downplayed risks to the insurance industry.

• The industry’s statements downplaying climate risks to regulators stands in sharp contrast to other statements from insurance companies claiming that climate change and climate risks “exacerbate” losses for insurers. Insurers have been acutely aware of the threats to their business model from climate change since the early 1970s.

Still, insurers continue to invest heavily in fossil fuels, despite the serious threats that climate change poses to their bottom line. In 2023, fossil fuel companies made up nearly 5% of all insurance industry portfolio holdings.

4. California Considers New Risk Mitigation Legislation

A new California bill would require insurers to cover homes meeting wildfire safety standards.

• Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), Chair of the Senate Insurance Committee, and Senator Mike McGuire, Senate Majority Leader, introduced SB 1076, a bill that would require insurers to offer coverage to homeowners whose properties meet minimum home hardening standards. The bill is being backed by consumer advocates.

• The bill is part of a new nationwide trend to require insurers to recognize individuals’ efforts to mitigate physical risk. In 2025, Colorado passed legislation to require insurers to give homeowners a discount on premiums based on physical mitigation. Lawmakers in Washington are considering similar legislation.

• These measures acknowledge an important truth: to deal with skyrocketing insurance rates, states will have to focus on actual risk reduction, both at the individual home level and the community level. States are increasingly taking up policies that seek to create a positive flywheel between making these investments, lowering risk, and strengthening access to affordable insurance.

5. Buffett’s PacifiCorp Agrees To Pay Half A Billion

Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility PacifiCorp in Oregon will pay $575 million as part of a wildfire settlement with the federal government.

• To settle a series of lawsuits filed by the federal government, PacifiCorp, a Western utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has agreed to pay $575 million for its role in sparking multiple fires in 2020 and 2022. Meanwhile, a jury also awarded 15 wildfire survivors $300 million yesterday as part of a class action against PacifiCorp in its role in the fires.

• PacifiCorp faced liability over its role in the 2020 Labor Day Fires, during which it kept power lines charged. It now says it resolved nearly 90% of “known claims,” totaling more than $2.2 billion in liability. While the utility says it remains “financially healthy,” last fall it faced a credit downgrade by S&P Global to BBB-, one step away from a “non-investment” grade.

• The recent saga is another warning sign for other utilities on the west coast, which are facing significant threats to their physical infrastructure from climate disasters, while also facing increasing liability risk from the same physical infrastructure. In some circumstances, utilities are being forced to interrupt service to customers during high-risk periods.

SPOTLIGHT: Renewables Can’t Stop Winning

Despite the federal government’s best efforts, wind, solar, and batteries will continue to dominate American grid additions through 2026, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. Wind, solar, and batteries account for 93% of the 86 GW in projected 2026 energy capacity additions. While there’s 6.3 GW of natural gas planned in 2026, wind will add nearly twice as much (11.8 GW) and solar accounts for seven times as much new generation (43.4 GW).

Georgia PSC Chairwoman Tricia Pridemore announces she won’t run for reelection this year.

• In a surprise announcement on Tuesday morning, Public Service Commission Chairwoman Tricia Pridemore announced that she would not run in the race for her seat. Pridemore was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal in 2018 and has never faced voters in all eight years she served on the PSC.

• At the time of her appointment, Pridemore had little experience on energy or related issues. Pridemore co-chaired both of Governor Nathan Deal’s inauguration committees, and served on Gov. Brian Kemp’s 2019 transition team.

Pridemore’s decision comes on the heels of the two new Democratic Commissioners Alicia Johnson and Pete Hubbard’s significant wins in their respective races in 2025. Commissioner Hubbard is running for reelection this year, and Democrats will see Pridemore’s decision not to run as a major boon for their chances at flipping the entire Commission.

2. Virginia Legislators Push Grid Utilization

In search of cost savings, legislators pass a pair of bills pushing utilities to more effectively use the grid we have to meet growing electricity needs.

• The Senate and House in Virginia’s General Assembly advanced a pair of bills this week (HB 434 and SB 621) that would require the Virginia State Corporation Commission to set a “grid utilization” standard. Grid utilization refers to how efficiently the grid’s infrastructure is used compared to its peak capacity.

• The bills would require the SCC to grade Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy, Virginia’s two investor-owned utilities, on their utilization data, and provide recommendations to the utilities on improving service through “non-wires alternatives” with technologies like battery storage, virtual power plants, and distributed generation.

• The bills are a key part of new Governor Abigail Spanberger’s promises around protecting Virginians from excessive rate hikes. During her 2025 campaign, Spanberger specifically advocated for using “existing resources more efficiently.” Spanberger has clearly gotten buy-in for her project: the House version of the bill passed unanimously.

Energy entrepreneur and former DOE Loans Program Officer Director Jigar Shah said of the bill: “This is pragmatic, data-driven energy policy — and exactly the kind of step we need to tackle affordability while meeting future load.”

3. California Moves Forward with Climate Diplomacy

Governor Gavin Newsom makes deals with world leaders in Europe on climate and energy — deepening a tradition of city and state climate diplomacy.

• Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom was abroad at the Munich Security Conference, where he met with and signed deals with Germany and the United Kingdom on energy and climate issues. Newsom pledged “deepening collaboration on green technologies” alongside German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider.

• Newsom also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UK Energy Security Minister Ed Milliband, to “deepen” the state’s ties with the UK on climate and clean energy collaboration. Newsom also announced a commitment from British energy company Octopus Energy to invest $1 billion into California’s clean tech sector.

• While the deals incensed President Trump (who called Newsom a “loser”), they are continued evidence that subnational diplomacy is increasingly concerned with climate change. No one can go it alone: cities and states are still looking for ways to work collaboratively and internationally to tackle these problems globally.

Use the Truman Center’s Multilevel Diplomacy Map to view a list of subnational diplomatic agreements on various topics — including climate change.

4. New York Lawmakers Advance Climate Disclosure

New York Senate passes a bill requiring companies to disclose emissions, echoing California’s law.

• The New York Senate passed SB 9072 last week, titled the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act. The bill would require companies operating in New York that generate more than $1 billion in annual revenues to disclose all greenhouse gas emissions, and is highly similar to California SB 253.

• New York’s version of the bill would require companies to report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions beginning in 2028, and their Scope 3 emissions beginning in 2029. California’s bill requires companies to report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions beginning in 2026, and Scope 3 in 2027.

• At the same time, the Senate passed bills to limit distribution warehouse pollution, prohibit the sale of certain goods with PFAS chemicals, and fund municipal environmental remediation.

Ceres’s Steven Rothstein:

“This legislation, building on corporate climate reporting in 37 countries and the state of California, will ensure that investors, employees, customers and others of the largest companies will have the information to understand current resiliency and risks.”

5. Maine Report Confirms Natural Gas Driving Rates Up

An Energy Resources Department report lifts up high fuel costs as a key driver of unaffordable electricity — warning of worsening stressors with more LNG exports on the horizon.

• A report released this week by the Maine Department of Energy Resources and prepared by the Brattle Group found that Maine’s high electricity rates are being driven by historically high natural gas prices.

• The report further warned that historically-high natural gas prices would be driven up even further by expanded natural gas exports, a factor that we at Pleiades have warned will continue to drive the price of energy in the United States.

• Of note, the report explicitly recommended that Maine can “mitigate consumer risks” by expanding clean energy development, load flexibility, and energy efficiency in the state, alongside “economical electrification” to replace key fossil fuel-dependent systems like most heating systems in the state.

SPOTLIGHT ON PUBLIC SAFETY: Utility Cutting Thousands Off From Power

On Monday, Coloradans served by Black Hills Energy briefly lost power as the utility declared an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff. The utility also warned that it may be forced to cut off power to thousands more as high winds and dry conditions increased fire risk in the area.

Utilities are now looking to protect their customers, and themselves, from increasing fire risks across the United States. Still, despite steps like this, Stanford researchers warned in 2025 that utilities are “unprepared for wildfire risk.” Stanford wrote in their report that “utility-ignited wildfire risk can no longer be ignored by electric utilities, regulators and lawmakers, or the communities they serve.”

Lawmakers in Illinois have introduced the POWER Act (SB4103/HB5513), a bill which would set a new high standard for data center development centered on common-sense consumer, clean energy, and water protections.

1. Ending the Endangerment Finding Doesn’t End the Danger

Climate deniers’ victory over the long-held basis of climate regulations don’t actually mitigate any existing danger.

• Today, the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Trump are formally announcing the rescission of the “endangerment finding,” a 2009 conclusion by the EPA that six greenhouse gases posed a public health risk. The finding arose from a 2007 Supreme Court decision classifying greenhouse gases as pollutants.

• The endangerment finding provided the legal foundation for most federal climate regulations, and eliminating it would instantly impact a number of federal regulations on cars, power plants, and more. Many legal observers suspect the administration wants the case to reach the right-wing Supreme Court, to overturn Massachusetts v. EPA.

• The crusade against the endangerment finding has been a long-running project driven by a small number of right-wing political staffers, including individuals connected to fossil fuel-linked right-wing advocacy groups.

• Despite eliminating the EPA’s finding, the evidence since 2009 in favor of the finding has only gotten stronger. The EPA’s strategy of burying the country’s collective head in the sand will not eliminate the very real dangers posed by greenhouse gas emissions, even as they continue to obscure climate change’s impacts on people’s lives, wallets, and safety.

2. Energy at the Super Bowl

Superstar Bad Bunny highlighted Puerto Rico’s struggling electric grid amidst his celebration of Puerto Rican and pan-American culture.

• Album of the Year-winner Bad Bunny climbed utility poles while singing “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”) during his Super Bowl halftime show, bringing attention to Puerto Rico’s electric grid which has the highest levels of blackouts in the United States.

• The island’s grid has particularly struggled since Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck in 2017, which caused an island-wide blackout and downed the island’s highly centralized and fossil-dominated power grid. Since the hurricanes, Puerto Rico has emerged as a leader in distributed energy systems, including rooftop solar, home batteries, and virtual power plants.

• But the consumer and citizen-led transformation of the grid isn’t enough: it needs the scaffolding and support of dedicated federal policy. Three days before Bad Bunny took the stage in San Francisco, Latitude Media reported that the Trump Administration cancelled the Congressionally-allocated $1 billion Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund, which had, until then, supported distributed and clean energy systems as a measure to boost resilience.

3. City of Naperville Cuts Off Electricity Talks With Mega-Polluter

Skepticism among Illinois cities as the IMEA fails to clean up its act and ignores changing energy economics.

• Last week, the Naperville, Illinois City Council voted 6-3 to pause contract talks with the Illinois Municipal Energy Agency, which it is currently contracted to buy electricity from until 2035. The IMEA sought to secure contract extensions from some of its members through 2055. In 2025, Naperville allowed its contract extension deadline to lapse, but continued negotiating — until last week.

• The move away from the IMEA would end Naperville’s reliance on the state’s largest polluter: the IMEA owns and gets 49% of its energy from the Prairie State Energy Campus (PSEC), a coal power plant that is the state’s most polluting power plant and the 8th biggest polluter in the nation. PSEC was, at the time of its construction, the “largest source of carbon dioxide built in the United States in a quarter-century.” Around 80% of the IMEA’s generation comes from coal.

• Naperville isn’t alone in this: St. Charles, another IMEA member, rejected the agency’s initial contract extension terms, as did multiple downstate communities.

Naperville Councilwoman Mary Gibson said: “We are in a rapidly changing market. If Naperville’s needs don’t dictate that we make those long-term decisions now, we should wait until those needs dictate that we start looking at our future options.”

4. Alabama Lawmakers Want To End PSC Elections

Utility-backed lawmakers in Alabama introduce legislation to eliminate elections for PSC commissioners as voters nationwide turn their attention to high energy prices.

• In Alabama, legislators introduced SB 268 to transition the Public Service Commission from an elected body to one chosen by the Governor, House Speaker, and Senate President. The legislators behind the bill have received a combined $200,000 in campaign contributions from Alabama Power, the state’s largest utility.

• The bill is part of the “Alabama Affordability Protection Plan,” a package including two bills focused on data centers and a third targeting PSC governance. But the bill itself doesn’t include any more oversight powers for the PSC, or ensure that appointed commissioners aren’t also captured by utility interests.

• Alabama Power is a subsidiary of Southern Company, which also owns Georgia Power. The Georgia branch of the company suffered a significant blow in November 2025, when Democrats Pete Hubbard and Alicia Johnson defeated two Georgia Power-backed candidates in a stunning upset, largely driven by frustration over regulators’ approval of utility rate hikes.

Energy Alabama Executive Director Daniel Tait, whose organization opposes the bill, said: “Alabama Power is so scared of voters that they are trying to take you out of the equation completely. If the Alabama Power Grab passes, the public loses oversight and the utility gains insulation once and for all. That is the whole point.”

5. Anti-Renewable Campaigners Run Up Against Their Constituents

From Missouri to Wyoming, anti-renewable policies that constrain the freedom of landowners to develop their land are facing backlash from property owners.

• In multiple states, the right-wing war on renewables is running into a new crop of opposition: their constituents. In Missouri and Wyoming, lawmakers are hearing from constituents incensed that their lawmakers are barring them from using their land productively.

• In Missouri, in testimony to lawmakers considering legislation to implement a moratorium on new solar development, one resident said that the bill “strips landowners of our fundamental right to choose our most profitable crop. And right now, solar energy generates twice the revenue of any other crop we can produce.”

• In Wyoming, two ranchers argued in an op-ed that anti-renewable lawmakers were using energy as a “partisan wedge,” against the interest of ranchers and landowners. Wyoming policymakers are currently moving to reverse their own prior decision by cancelling two wind developments.

Wyoming ranchers Rob Hendry and Scott Sims: “Voluntary agreements for energy projects allow ranchers to generate stable income while continuing to run cattle, farm crops, and steward open space. Those dollars pay taxes, keep equipment running, and help the next generation stay on the land.”

SPOTLIGHT: Anti-ESG Laws Show More Bark Than Bite

Last week, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Lone Star State’s “fossil fuel boycott” law, SB 13, was unconstitutional. The law was “overly broad” and violated First Amendment rights, according to Judge Alan D. Albright, a Trump appointee.

Pleiades Founder Frances Sawyer said to Reuters this week, “It is yet another court ruling protecting the freedom to invest. This should be a strong signal that the overreach of anti-ESG laws has more bark than bite.”