NetZero Insider Weekly Intelligence Report: Resources

This week in resources news, NetZero Insider’s Henrik Nilsson wrote about the California PUC’s new, stricter safety rules for batteries adopted after the Moss Landing fire. Battery storage owners will have to follow new standards for their maintenance and operation, and develop emergency plans with local first responders. California is home to 13,000 MW of batteries as of 2024, including the 300-MW Moss Landing facility in Monterey County that burned on Jan. 16, prompting the evacuation of 1,200 people.

A couple of stories from NetZero Insider highlight the issues facing offshore wind development, which have been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s opposition to the resource. Atlantic Shores, which is the only remaining project moving forward in New Jersey, had its permit from EPA yanked on March 14 in response to an executive order from the president, as K Kaufmann reported. The new politics in Washington are also threatening the plans for a wind tower manufacturing site in Albany, N.Y., as Vincent Gabrielle reported. The facility was meant to produce up to 150 towers per year and support more than 3,000 jobs. The Port of Albany is now considering bringing other industries to the site.

James Downing wrote about the American Clean Power Association’s annual storage report that showed a 12.3-GW record for installations. The technology is big in California and Texas but also saw installations in 13 states. Growth is expected to be strong over the next few years, but policy uncertainty hangs over it as well. The growth could be curtailed if clean energy tax credits are ended by a new law and President Trump’s tariffs against China especially could raise prices enough to dent growth.

One sector of the energy industry President Trump sees as key for “energy dominance” is natural gas, and that could wind up helping out longstanding issues with New England and the tightrope its power system has to walk every winter cold snap. CT Insider ran a column noting the president’s support for a new pipeline in New England, which can see the highest prices in the world during the winter, while nearby Pennsylvania has the cheapest. The local politics are warming up to pipeline expansion as well with, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont saying the state needs more energy and that natural gas could be an area where it works with the Trump administration.

Trump and his cabinet are also big boosters of LNG exports, but as OilPrice.com reported, the industry is more focused on making sure its product is as clean as possible because that is what its customers want. Trump has made the point of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate both times he took office, but the buyers of U.S. LNG in Europe and East Asia still follow it and want U.S. imports to come from gas that minimizes methane and other climate pollution.

We have a host of other stories for you below in this week’s Intelligence Report:

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Biomass
Carbon Capture
Coal
Community Solar
Demand Response
Hydrogen
Lng

Natural Gas
Nuclear
Renewable Energy
Rooftop Solar
Solar
Solar, Storage
Solar, Wind

Storage
Wind

Biomass

Maryland

Bill ending trash incineration subsidy still alive, legislators say

A bill that would end Maryland's practice of allocating renewable energy subsidies to trash incinerators is stalled in committee but not dead yet, despite missing the "crossover" deadline that would be the death of most bills. Maryland Matters