With President Donald Trump continuing to roll out policies and pronouncements aimed at derailing the U.S. clean energy transition, NetZero Insider reporters have been shifting their focus to states that are taking action on their own decarbonization goals.

John Cropley has a great story on New York’s Build-Ready program, which does the legwork for turning brownfield sites into shovel-ready locations for renewable energy projects. The program’s first ― and very cool ― project will put a 12-MW solar installation on the site of a former iron mine in the Adirondacks, conveniently located near a utility substation. 

The New Jersey legislature is pondering the conundrum of advancing its clean energy goals while also attracting artificial intelligence data centers to the state, our Hugh Morley writes. The Senate Energy and Environment Committee approved a bill that would require new data centers to BYOG ― bring their own carbon-free generation ― along with a resolution encouraging other PJM states to adopt similar policies. 

Rounding out our state coverage, K Kaufmann filed an update on the energy legislation moving forward on the Maryland General Assembly’s crossover day, when bills must be passed by one house and sent to the other. One of the crossovers, HB 829, would require transmission developers seeking approval for a new line to provide evidence to the Maryland Public Service Commission that they have explored alternatives such as grid-enhancing technologies. 

Kaufmann also looks at how clean energy industry trade groups like the American Council on Renewable Energy are pivoting their message to position solar, wind and energy storage as vital to Trump’s drive for U.S. energy abundance and dominance ― much cheaper and faster to build than natural gas or nuclear. 

And James Downing reports that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision that put a hold on FERC’s approval of two LNG facilities in Texas. 

Moving to our curated content, a federal judge put a hold on EPA’s campaign to claw back $14 billion in federal dollars intended to be used for clean energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities, The New York Times reports. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found no “credible evidence” to support EPA’s efforts to block the grants, nor had the agency followed proper procedures. 

Floodlight takes a deep dive into how millions of U.S. consumers could end up paying the billions it will cost to build new generation and other infrastructure to meet that rapidly increasing demand. 

The Guardian documents the spread of the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to prohibit bans on natural gas hook-ups in new construction, from the first, and eventually rolled-back, ban in Berkeley, Calif., to the emergence of similar ban-the-bans initiatives in Europe and Australia, all aimed at undermining building electrification efforts. 

Back in the U.S., NC Newsline has the story on how Republicans in the North Carolina legislature are attempting to fast-track a bill that would repeal a 2021 requirement that Duke Energy cut its greenhouse gas emissions 70% below 2005 levels by 2030. Leading the charge is Sen. Paul Newton, a retired Duke Energy executive. 

Read on for more of this week’s Intelligence Report: