Kentucky battery plant workers approve campaign to unionize

STORAGE: The United Auto Workers announces a campaign to unionize Ford Motor Co. and SK On’s joint battery project in Kentucky after a supermajority of workers sign union authorization cards. (Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky Lantern)

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ALSO: A Texas startup is operating a 53 MW storage project made up of used electric vehicle batteries, and appears to be the largest grid storage plant in the world. (Canary Media)

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POLITICS:

• A Virginia judge rules that Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration can’t legally withdraw the state from a regional carbon market because only the state legislature has the authority to do so. (Virginia Mercury)
• Even as Donald Trump won the state, North Carolina voters elected a new Democratic governor who has backed rooftop solar and curbing carbon pollution, but lame duck Republican lawmakers are moving to further restrict a governor’s office that’s already one of the weakest in the country. (Energy News Network)

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HYDROGEN: The Biden administration signs an agreement with developers to build a $1.2 billion hydrogen hub in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)

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NUCLEAR:

• Federal regulators award a construction permit to a company to build a fluoride salt-cooled nuclear reactor in Tennessee. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• A judge sentences a South Carolina businessman to a year in prison and $100,000 fine for his role in the $9 billion failure of a nuclear power project. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)
• As tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon pursue generative artificial intelligence projects with high power needs, they’re signing deals to develop new nuclear reactors or to restart old ones. (Fortune)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Hyundai unveils a new, three-row electric SUV, marking the second vehicle it will make at its new $7.6 billion Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
• Analysts say Donald Trump’s plans to roll back tax incentives for electric vehicles and clean energy manufacturing could harm the economy in Tennessee, which has seen $12.6 billion in investment in new clean energy projects since 2022. (Tennessee Lookout)

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SOLAR: A Virginia county board discusses changing its solar ordinance to tighten restrictions on projects larger than five acres. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

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CARBON CAPTURE: Exxon Mobil and other Gulf Coast oil and gas companies lobby the incoming Trump administration to preserve an $85 per ton tax credit for carbon storage since they’ve already invested in development of the technology. (Houston Chronicle)

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OIL & GAS: The Biden administration still aims to release a new rule to require oil and gas companies to cover cleanup costs from offshore drilling rigs, but time is running out and the incoming Trump administration could rewrite or delay it. (E&E News)

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BIOFUELS: The Tennessee Valley Authority and an energy nonprofit announce the successful demonstration of renewable diesel for power generation at a 76 MW gas and diesel-fired power plant in Tennessee. (news release)

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UTILITIES: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators for approval to charge customers for costs associated with its offshore wind farm and moves to develop small modular nuclear reactors. (VPM)

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COMMENTARY: The incoming Trump administration’s promises to roll back electric vehicle tax credits could rattle Georgia’s industry, writes a columnist. (Georgia Recorder)

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