The Latest
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Western energy market incorporates, asks CAISO for financing help
The Regional Organization for Western Energy, an á la carte energy market, is significantly closer to launch and looking for a funding mechanism to help cover $8 million in implementation costs.
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Sponsored by IEEE Power & Energy Society
Top 2026 events for engineers
Stay ahead of the curve and don't miss out on the leading 2026 events for power and electrical engineers and professionals.
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Consumers Energy plans over $17B in capital spending in next 5 years
Executives did not provide a substantive update on the DOE’s “emergency” orders to continue running a 1.6-GW coal plant the company had planned to retire, but they hinted that they would eventually shut it down to “drive cost savings.”
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EPA reconsiders Good Neighbor Plan that limited power plant emissions
The agency seeks to roll back the Biden-era program to cut ozone-forming emissions of nitrogen oxides from power plants and industrial facilities. This pollution often affects downwind states’s ability to meet Clean Air Act requirements.
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First Solar releases poll showing support for solar among GOP voters
When asked if all forms of electricity generation, including utility‑scale solar, should be allowed to compete fairly in the marketplace without political interference, 79% of GOP-aligned voters surveyed agreed.
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Utilities face cost-recovery risk as infrastructure costs, demand rise: Morningstar
With metal costs soaring, utilities will pay more for key grid parts such as transmission lines, distribution feeders and transformers, analysts with the ratings agency said.
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Federal energy assistance programs survive budget gauntlet
Budget bills passed by Congress and signed by President Trump maintain funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Weatherization Assistance Program.
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White House launches environmental review permitting tool pilot
The platform, CE Works, is intended to help agencies determine whether a project qualifies for a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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Retrieved from House Energy and Commerce Committee.
House lawmakers press FERC on affordability, reliability and gas
Commissioners cited inadequate transmission infrastructure as a major concern. A gas-fired project in the PJM Interconnection needs $1 billion in grid upgrades to come online, said Commissioner David Rosner.
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Opinion
Why regional manufacturing will power the next clean economy
If regions align around shared climate goals, fragmented progress can become a unified national movement, write Lara Croushore from SecondMuse and Stacey Weismiller of the American Manufacturing Futures Institute.
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TVA pursues 6.2 GW of new generation, citing data centers, population growth
Data center demand “climbed to 18% of our industrial load in 2025, and we are projecting data center growth to double in our region by 2030,” said CEO Don Moul.
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Tesla sets battery storage deployment record in Q4 as EV sales slump
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said “energy will have very high growth for as far into the future as we can imagine.”
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AI, ICE protests and karaoke: DistribuTECH comes to San Diego
“As an industry, we’ve gone from ‘Keep the lights on and stay out of the news,’ to now being the lead story for energy independence, national security and AI development,” said Del Misenheimer, GE Vernova’s VP and CEO of grid automation and software.
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Opinion
Why reinforcement learning belongs in residential utility billing
Accurate billing is often treated as a back-office function, but billing errors undermine customer confidence, discourage conservation and expose utilities to risk, writes Metergy Solutions analyst Yueqi Tian.
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Landfill solar projects have taken off but still face practical limitations
The United States now has hundreds of solar installations on closed landfills. Increasing that number could prove tricky, however, as remaining sites may be limited by shifting federal policy, remediation costs and geography.
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Trump administration is now 0-5 in latest effort to halt offshore wind
Ørsted’s 924-MW Sunrise Wind was the fifth and final affected project to win a preliminary injunction. Like others, it said the government refused to share information about alleged national security risks invoked in the blanket ban.
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Utility conferences to watch in 2026
See our annual list of notable power-sector conferences where industry leaders will share knowledge in a rapidly-changing landscape.
Updated Jan. 30, 2026 -
Transmission planning, development improved since 2023 in most US regions: report
However, the grade for Texas slipped to a "D-” and the Southeast continues to get failing marks, according to a report released Tuesday by Americans for a Clean Energy Grid.
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Tariffs lifted nonresidential construction costs 3.2% in 2025
Trade policy will “continue to put upward pressure on certain materials” in 2026, said the chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors. In December, copper wire and cable jumped 22% year over year. Iron and steel were up 12%.
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Coal plant owners say DOE ‘emergency’ order to run it violates Constitution
By mandating the generator’s availability to operate, the order “constitutes both a physical taking and a regulatory taking” of property by the government without just compensation or due process, they said in a request for rehearing.
Updated Feb. 2, 2026 -
Opinion
Quick fixes won’t solve high energy bills
As grid spending increases, policymakers should look beyond residential customers to cover costs, writes Arjun Krishnaswami, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.
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Trump signs bill increasing DOE’s wind and solar spending by $250M
The White House asked that Congress zero out the solar and wind energy programs of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, but lawmakers provided $320 million to those two Energy Department programs.
Updated Feb. 2, 2026 -
Gas, electricity prices spiked year over year in November: EIA
The residential price of electricity rose 5.5% in November compared with November 2024, while the price of gas rose 88.5%, according to the Energy Information Administration.
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Deep Dive
Customers, don’t expect electric bill relief in 2026: ‘The cake is baked.’
Energy affordability has long been a problem for the poorest Americans, but now middle-income families are starting to feel the squeeze.
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(2025). "ENERGY STAR NextGen Certification for Commercial Buildings" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Energy Star.
Energy Star gets full 2026 funding from Congress
Despite the Trump administration’s effort to eliminate the program, it received $33 million as part of a fiscal 2026 funding bill signed by the president.
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Opinion
The AI boom needs power. Tariffs can make it fair.
Large load tariffs can be used to deliver community benefits, lock in clean, reliable power and strengthen energy resilience, writes Ava Community Energy’s Olivia Vasquez.