Week ending September 25, 2026

In February, Duke executives told investors that the company’s $103-billion capital spending plan was the largest on file at any regulated U.S. utility as it sought to capitalize on the data center boom.

The Duke spokesperson said the company believes it has “demonstrated that the Smith [combustion turbine] is part of a least-cost path to maintain reliable and affordable service for customers as energy demand continues to grow across North Carolina.”

New England states urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a complaint that seeks to strip Maine’s transmission owners — including Avangrid’s Central Maine Power — of an extra 0.5% return on equity they earn for being a member of ISO New England, according to a Monday filing at FERC.

FERC gives transmission owners a 0.5% boost to their ROE as an incentive to voluntarily join a regional transmission organization or an independent system operator.

California is home to 296 data centers, the third highest number in the U.S., according to Data Center Map. 

“Communities are left to deal with the consequences — higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution,” Newsom said in a statement.

A federal judge on Friday vacated the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to end its $7 billion Solar for All program, saying it illegally terminated obligated grant funding.

“When an agency acts outside the bounds of its statutory authority, it violates the [Administrative Procedure Act],” Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump-appointed judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, wrote in her ruling.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas voted Friday to adopt new large load interconnection standards, opting to eliminate a proposed rule’s non-refundable interconnection fee and set a flat study fee of $100,000, regardless of load size.

The proposed rule, issued in March, required a non-refundable interconnection fee of $50,000 per MW of contracted peak demand. The PUCT eliminated this from its final rule. 

Because the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), ERCOT, and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) require that information to make informed decisions, no state agency shall move forward with regulatory approvals related to data center development until it is acquired.

"Simply put, Texans must come first,” said Governor Abbott. “Data centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water, and complete the ERCOT and TWDB audits.

The expansion would add a further 14 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas export capacity to the facility in Kitimat, British Columbia, effectively doubling the project's total capacity to 28 mtpa.

The proposed expansion comes as LNG buyers, particularly in Asia, are placing a growing emphasis on supply security amid conflict in the Middle East, Red Sea shipping disruptions and uncertainty over future flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Canadian government is offering Indigenous groups a collective 15 per cent ownership stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline through a low-cost loan.

In a letter to a First Nation along the pipeline's path and seen by The Canadian Press, a federal Department of Finance official says the equity investment would be equally distributed among participating groups.

Emerging economies are going to see an explosion of energy demand over the coming decades.

Countries like Brazil, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia are racing to expand their energy production and imports in order to keep up with rapid economic development.