EPA Proposes Curbing States’ Power to Block Pipelines

Current conditions: Snowfall and wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour are headed today for the Great Lakes and northern Northeast • Florida up to South Carolina is bracing for a cold snap, with temperatures 20 degrees Fahrenheit below average • Australia is roasting in temperatures as high as 119 degrees, raising the risk of already-sparked bush fires spreading.

THE TOP FIVE

1. EPA proposes rule to curb states’ power to reject pipelines

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule Tuesday to limit states’ power to block construction of oil and gas pipelines, coal export terminals, and other energy projects that threaten to pollute local waterways. The regulation would truncate Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, a part of the landmark federal law that states have used for years to restrict fossil fuel development. The change is the second part of what The New York Times called a “one-two punch against the Clean Water Act,” following the EPA’s announcement in November that it would strip federal protections from millions of acres of wetlands and streams.

2. Nation’s largest grid intervenes on behalf of offshore wind

The PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, made a rare foray into a hotly political lawsuit Tuesday, filing an amicus brief in defense of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind projects as the Virginia utility challenges the Trump administration’s blanket decision last month to halt construction on all seaborne turbines. “It is widely recognized, including by the current administration, that there is a pressing need for additional electric generation in PJM’s region to meet rising demand and ensure the reliability of the interstate transmission grid,” PJM’s lawyers wrote in the brief. The project Trump is trying to cancel “will provide such generation,” and “has been in planning and development for many years.” As such, PJM urged the court to grant the preliminary injunction Dominion requested.

That strategy is working elsewhere. On Monday, a federal court granted such an injunction to Orsted for its Revolution Wind project off New England, as I reported in yesterday’s newsletter.

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3. Republicans’ energy framework for ‘reconciliation 2.0’ ignores nuclear and geothermal

Just six months since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act through the reconciliation process, Republicans have their eyes on legislating more big energy changes through what they’re calling “reconciliation 2.0.” A framework for the bill released Tuesday “does not mention renewables or energy sources with broad bipartisan support, such as nuclear and geothermal,” E&E News noted. Instead, the bill focuses on streamlining permitting for fossil fuels, killing off energy efficiency programs, and implementing new fees on plaintiffs who sue the federal government for alleged violations of “procedural environmental laws.”

That comes despite the fact that U.S. emissions reversed their last two years of declines to rise 2.4% on the back of more coal-fired generation in 2025, according to new data from the Rhodium Group consultancy.

4. Arizona governor reverses support for data center tax breaks

In yet another sign of the growing backlash against data centers, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs called for curtailing her state’s lucrative tax incentives for server farms and imposing new water use fees on the industry. The Democrat, who is running for reelection in November, called the tax break a “$38 million corporate handout” and urged legislators to eliminate it. “It’s time we make the booming data center industry work for the people of our state, rather than the other way around,” she said in her state-of-the-state address opening the state legislature’s 2026 session, according to Politico.

Just 44% of Americans said they’d welcome a data center in their neighborhood in a Heatmap Pro poll from September. And as Heatmap’s Jael Holzman wrote in November, data center opposition is “swallowing American politics,” driving activists on both the left and right.

5. Nuclear to the moon?

Slovakia's Mochovce nuclaer power plant.Janos Kummer/Getty Images

Nuclear developers of all kinds have promised to deploy new kinds of reactors by 2030. But the Department of Energy is now planning to build its first atomic generator on the moon in just four years. “History shows that when American science and innovation come together, from the Manhattan Project to the Apollo Mission, our nation leads the world to reach new frontiers once thought impossible,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a press release Tuesday evening. “This agreement continues that legacy.”

In a more conceivable near-term goal, the U.S. is also looking to broker a nuclear agreement with Slovakia, expanding Washington’s grip over Russia’s former sphere of atomic influence. The U.S. nuclear champion Westinghouse already produces American-made fuel for Slovakia’s Russian-made reactors. But NucNet reported this week that Prime Minister Robert Fico has confirmed the Central European nation is planning to sign a sweeping partnership deal with the U.S. that would clear the way for construction of new American-made reactors, likely Westinghouse AP1000s like those under construction in Poland.

THE KICKER

When I first traveled to the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 to visit Indigenous villages affected by then-President Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to encourage illegal mining in the rainforest, I found children with rashes from exposure to mercury dumped in the river they depended on for bathing and food by gold panners who used the toxic metal to sift through mud for precious metal. In a new analysis for the conservation site Mongabay, ecologist Timothy J. Killeen argues that finding a way to formalize the business could allow the industry to “finance its own remediation while creating more than 200,000 jobs that transform illegal extraction into a regulated industry.” While he admitted it’s a “substantial if,” failing to do something raises the risk that “the tailings will remain, mercury will continue leaching into watersheds, and another generation will ask why available solutions were not deployed to solve a problem that everybody agrees is intolerable and unnecessary.”