Transition Finance Weekly - April 30, 2026
Spanberger’s 100 Days; Gas Gets More Expensive; Geothermal Bill in CO
1. Spanberger Caps 100 Days With Focus On Energy
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.