The federal policy reporters at NetZero Insider were busy this past week with a flurry of decisions and announcements.

On the FERC front, where our James Downing never misses a story, the commission finalized how it will implement its backstop transmission permitting authority with a final decision on Order 1977, in most cases, standing firm in the face of revision and rehearing requests.  

New England renewable energy developers have a bone to pick with FERC, which has yet to take action on ISO-NE’s compliance package on the commission’s Order 2023, aimed at accelerating interconnection processes, Jon Lamson reports. More than 100 projects across the region are left dangling due to the delay.  

K Kaufmann had back-to-back stories, beginning with the Supreme Court’s refusal to slap a stay on EPA’s rule on cutting emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, pending a decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  

Not to be outdone by SCOTUS, the Department of Energy quickly followed, announcing another $2 billion in awards from its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, funding a range of grid upgrades and new lines to provide more power to meet electricity demand and faster recovery from climate disasters, Kaufmann writes. 

Downing had a story on a new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists arguing that switching to fossil fuel alternatives, like hydrogen or carbon capture, is not a silver bullet for reducing methane emissions at natural gas power plants. Renewables and storage do it better, the report says.  

Moving to our curated content, data centers’ voracious appetite for electricity and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions continue to be top of mind for some in the industry. Innovation Origins, a European publication, looks at current efforts to cut both demand and emissions through energy efficiency, using innovative cooling methods and AI itself to manage centers’ energy use.  

Hurricanes Helene and Milton remain in the headlines with The Hill’s analysis of the land and insurance policies that have kept populations growing in high-risk areas in Florida and California , as well as locations previously seen as relatively safe, like the North Carolina mountains still recovering from Helene’s floods. 

One solution could be the hurricane-proof, solar-powered homes in a luxury community in Bradenton, Fla., profiled by CNN. As the surrounding area went dark during Hurricane Milton, the lights stayed on in this exclusive development, where home prices range from $1.45 million to almost $2 million.  

But the bottom line here is that while the recent hurricanes devastated many districts represented by Republicans in Congress, GOP lawmakers continue to downplay, if not deny the connection between rising GHG emissions and extreme weather and the need to curb the burning of fossil fuels, E&E News reports.  

Counting down to the election, Inside Climate News takes a deep dive into a down-ballot race in Arizona, where the Republican-controlled Arizona Corporation Commission ― the state’s utility regulator ― has raised rates, approved new natural gas plants and slapped fees on rooftop solar owners. But three of the ACC’s five seats are up for grabs, and a Democratic slate is pushing hard as consumer and clean energy advocates. 

Can states with strong climate policies ― like California ― withstand another Trump administration? Politico argues that the state’s climate policies already are under attack in the courts, with agencies looking to negotiate compromises with potential corporate opponents and pushing EPA to approve the waivers that allow California to enact climate laws and policies that are stricter than federal standards. 

The news doesn’t stop, and NetZero Insider’s Policy and Impacts newsletter will keep you on top of the big stories. Read on!