Infrastructure

"The Trump administration on Thursday told states it was blocking money for electric vehicle chargers, including $71 million for Washington, one of the latest steps by the White House to halt Biden-era funding. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, known as NEVI, was set to dole out a total of $5 billion to states to build charging networks along highways. The Federal Highway Administration previously approved states’ plans for using the money."

"One bill that would have required oil companies to help pay for damages from climate-driven disasters failed and another that would levy heavy fines on refineries that release toxic air contaminants was watered down."

"About 780 coal units, individual generators with a boiler and a turbine capable of producing electricity, have retired since 2000. And more than half of the remaining units are also slated for retirement, according to new data from the Global Energy Monitor, an organization that collects international energy data."

"The DOE Loan Programs Office gave out $107 billion to 53 projects, from EV factories to a nuclear-plant restart. But the fate of the loans is unclear under Trump."

"A new artificial intelligence model from China not only upended stock markets this week, it also called into question whether the rush to build new, mostly fossil-fueled power plants to run data centers is premature."

"Exxon's proposal for a plastics factory on the Gulf Coast raises alarms for a community already dealing with pollution."

"Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration are attempting to repeal the Biden administration’s groundbreaking rules that require all the country’s lead pipes to be replaced over the next 13 years and lower the limit on lead in water."

"More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American eels."

"Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC filed with regulators Monday official requests to build its revised Southgate extension project from Southwest Virginia into North Carolina." "The company’s proposal to build more than 30 miles of natural gas pipeline has worried environmental advocates, who believe it could harm nearby residents."

"Brandon Russell, the founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group, was convicted Monday of conspiring to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid."