** U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says New England and California are to blame for their own high electricity rates because of policies that drove fossil fuel power plants to close, and also says the states’ use of imported oil makes them national security risks.
** An oversight group for PJM Interconnection calls on the grid operator to stop approving data centers until it has enough power plants and transmission lines to accommodate their demand for power.
** A proposal to build a 150-megawatt data center in a Baltimore suburb meets resistance from residents and state officials who worry the project could make electricity more expensive and less reliable, while burdening an already disadvantaged community.
** The future of the once-touted Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub is in question after the Trump administration cuts off new funding and considers canceling existing grants for it and other hydrogen hubs.
** The U.S. Department of Energy awards a $400 million grant to the Tennessee Valley Authority to speed development of a small modular nuclear reactor in East Tennessee.
** Alabama regulators approve billing changes that will keep Alabama Power’s rates level for two years after an analysis finds its customers pay the highest electricity bills in the country, and OK 80 MW and 180 MW solar farms through an agreement with Meta.
** Environmental activists, business groups, and consumer advocates unite against a proposal that would add $22 to $55 a month to New Jersey residents’ utility bills to pay for the construction of a new nuclear plant for years before it would begin operation.
** Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ private aerospace firm Blue Origin wants permission to discharge a massive quantity of wastewater into a lagoon that the Environmental Protection Agency deemed a “natural treasure,” Gizmodo reported.Indian River Lagoon is one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America, “responsible for one-seventh of the region’s economy,” according to Florida State Parks.
World
** An attack on the large Khor Mor gas field in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq was carried out by two drones, Iraqi authorities said. The announcement came more than a week after the November 26 incident. The Khor Mor gas field is a central energy site that provides much of the electricity used across the Kurdistan region.
** Turkey’s energy minister issued a call for the supply of oil and gas in the Black Sea to be protected after three Russian tankers were targeted off the Turkish coast. Alparslan Bayraktar said Turkey was concerned not just by the threat to shipping but also to two undersea pipelines, Blue Stream and Turk Stream, that carry natural gas from Russia to Turkey.
** Russia’s oil companies are still shipping nearly the same amount of oil after the US Treasury cracked down on its biggest producers recently — but the country’s energy profits are falling fast, a Goldman Sachs analysis shows.