** The Trump administration has a new beef with renewable energy: It takes up too much space. One of the Interior Department’s latest rules for evaluating whether to approve energy projects on federal land will focus on “energy density,” a metric that supposedly captures how much power a project can produce per acre of land it occupies.
** Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers. More than a dozen states have begun taking steps as data centers drive a rapid build-out of power plants and transmission lines.
** The California Supreme Court sided with environmental groups in a ruling, saying that state lawyers were wrong in their claim that the Public Utilities Commission’s decision to slash rooftop solar incentives could not be challenged. The unanimous decision sends the case brought by the three groups back to the appeals court.
** Meta has tapped U.S. bond giant PIMCO and alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital to spearhead a $29 billion financing for its data center expansion in rural Louisiana, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
** Enterprise Products Partners’ affiliates have executed a $580 million agreement to acquire a natural gas-gathering affiliate from Occidental. The acquisition includes a long-term dedication of approximately 73,000 acres across four counties in the Midland Basin, with assets comprising around 200 miles (321.8km) of natural gas-gathering pipelines.
World
** A powerful shift toward clean energy is taking shape in central Victoria, Australia, where Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona is advancing its massive $990 million Tall Tree wind and battery project.
** From McDonald’s and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, U.S.-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against U.S. tariffs.
** The Indian alloy steel producers’ association has filed an anti-dumping petition with the federal trade ministry against cheap imports from China, its senior executive told Reuters on Monday. India, the world’s second-biggest producer of crude steel, has the capacity to make around 18 million to 20 million metric tons per annum of alloy steel, which is used in the auto, defence and aerospace sectors.
** In an effort to skirt steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods, Volvo plans to move some production of its electric vehicle stock to Europe — and will debut a new model in its wake. The Swedish carmaker plans to build the compact Polestar 7 EV at its new plant in Kosice, Slovakia, starting in 2028, InsideEVs reported.
