Transition Finance Weekly - February 12, 2026
Endangering Us All; Divorce From Dirty Power in Illinois; Energy Democracy Backsliding
BREAKING:
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.”
