Stalled rollout jeopardizes IRA home energy rebates

BUILDINGS: Inflation Reduction Act funding for home energy rebates will likely remain mostly unspent until after the November election; Trump allies have indicated he would revamp the program and jeopardize the funding if he is elected. (E&E News)

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ALSO: As some co-op and condo buildings consider just paying the fines instead of complying with New York City’s building emissions law, the city’s council considers a bill to ease penalties. (Gothamist)

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SOLAR: Covering around 10% of the world’s lakes and reservoirs with floating solar panels could generate enough electricity to power the United Kingdom four times over, and could be used to cover all power use in some small countries, scientists find. (Grist)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A Tesla racks up 1.2 million miles on its odometer after significant repairs, highlighting how electric vehicles’ few moving parts position them to last for decades, provided automakers allow for their continued maintenance and repair. (The Atlantic)
• Automakers’ scaled-back electric vehicle plans have created just a few hundred jobs in Michigan after the state pledged $1 billion in public funding to lure projects. (Bridge)
• A Tennessee state senator says lower than expected electric vehicle demand could delay the start of production at Ford’s new Tennessee EV factory by at least nine months, until 2026. (Tennessee Lookout)

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GRID:

• State regulators and power companies contest federal regulators’ new transmission planning rules, claiming they threaten states’ rights. (E&E News, subscription)
• Ohio utilities continue to miss reliability standards for the average number of outages and duration of outages despite spending millions of dollars on service upgrades. (Energy News Network)

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POLITICS:

• Former President Trump visits Capitol Hill Republicans to plan ways to revamp and repeal parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, should he win the election. (E&E News)
• Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio says he’ll join Republicans in voting to overturn the Biden administration’s clean power plan that targets emissions from fossil fuel plants. (Cleveland.com)

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UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority says its emissions reductions and renewable power generation makes it a clean energy leader, but critics say its proposal to build 7,000 MW of new gas generation negates that claim. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

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PIPELINES: “I don’t want to be in town when it blows up” — Virginia residents react to federal regulators’ approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to begin transporting natural gas. (WVTF, WDBJ)

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GEOTHERMAL: Google agrees to purchase about 112 MW of enhanced geothermal-generated electricity from NV Energy to power its Nevada data centers. (Reuters)

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