Energy News
What's actually moving electricity rates, assistance programs, and grid policy right now — sorted newest first.
Data Centers and a Record Heat Wave Are Straining the US Power Grid Together
A severe heat wave across the eastern United States in early July 2026 pushed grid operator PJM to ask large industrial customers, including data centers, to shift to backup genera…
Read more →FERC Orders Major Grid Operators to Rewrite Rules for Gigawatt-Scale Data Center Loads
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued show-cause orders to the six largest US grid operators, directing them to defend or rewrite interconnection rules for gig…
Read more →Virginia Becomes First State to Directly Tax Data Center Electricity Consumption
Virginia's state budget, effective July 1, 2026, establishes a consumption tax of $0.011 per kilowatt-hour on all electricity used by data centers, a first-of-its-kind measure amon…
Read more →PJM Capacity Prices Rose 833% in Two Years — What It Could Mean for Household Bills
Capacity prices in the PJM Interconnection market — the grid operator serving all or part of 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states plus Washington, D.C. — rose 833% betwee…
Read more →Monterey Park, California Voters Approve First Municipal Data Center Ban in the US
Voters in Monterey Park, California approved a ballot measure prohibiting new data center development within city limits, passing with 86% support and concluding a months-long disp…
Read more →Nine States Saw Electricity Prices Fall Even as the National Average Kept Climbing
The US average residential electricity rate reached 18.83 cents per kilowatt-hour in April 2026, up 7.4% from the same month a year earlier, according to EIA data reported by Elect…
Read more →LIHEAP's FY2026 Funds Are Fully Disbursed — But the Program Faces Elimination Again in FY2027
The remaining share of Fiscal Year 2026 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding, roughly $421 million, was disbursed to states on April 20, 2026, following delay…
Read more →Seven Major Tech Companies Sign White House-Facilitated Ratepayer Protection Pledge
In March 2026, seven major technology companies — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI — signed a White House-facilitated Ratepayer Protection Pledg…
Read more →Federal Solar Tax Credit Holds at 30% for 2026 — What Homeowners Should Know
The federal solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) remains at 30% of system cost for 2026, according to Department of Energy guidance, continuing to shape the economics of residential s…
Read more →Average US Winter Heating Bill Projected at $976, Up From $907 the Prior Year
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) has projected that the average American household will pay approximately $976 for home heating this winter, up from $90…
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