Squabble Over Data Center in Lordstown Goes to Ohio Supreme Court
Lordstown is a small village in southern Trumbull County, Ohio (population 3,332). The village has one operational gas-fired power plant, the Lordstown Energy Center, generating 940 megawatts (MW) of electricity. A second gas-fired power plant, the Trumbull Energy Center, is under construction and due to come online in 2026. It will generate 950 MW of electricity. Developers are proposing to build a $3.6 billion, 1.65 million square-foot data center campus in Lordstown on the site of the former GM complex (south of OpenAI’s Stargate AI data center campus). The developers filed a petition with the Ohio Supreme Court against Lordstown, claiming the village is blocking consideration of their proposal in violation of zoning procedures. Read More “Squabble Over Data Center in Lordstown Goes to Ohio Supreme Court”

I see ghosts! Or is that dead people? The U.S. electricity grid faces pressure from surging demand, primarily from data centers, sparking debates over reliability and cost allocation. EPSA (Electric Power Supply Association) CEO Todd Snitchler warns that “ghost projects”—projects announced and planned/funded but never built—are artificially inflating load forecasts. He argues that regulated utilities use these overstated numbers to justify expensive rate-based generation, benefiting shareholders while forcing customers to bear the costs of potential overbuilding. Competitive energy markets are demanding accurate, data-driven planning to maintain affordability and reliability without wasting capital on unnecessary infrastructure. Please, no more ghosts.
Reorg! The Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled a major reorganization under the Trump administration to prioritize fossil fuels, minerals, and nuclear power while diminishing renewable energy programs. Secretary Chris Wright’s plan rebrands the loan program as “Energy Dominance Financing” and consolidates efficiency and clean energy divisions into a new “Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.” This restructuring, aimed at restoring “common sense” to energy policy, accompanies billions in project cancellations and staff reductions. 

In May, pipeline giant Williams filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expedite the reissuance of a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a $1 billion+ project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets (see 
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In May, NRG Energy announced a deal to acquire LS Power’s portfolio of natural-gas power plants in a deal valued at roughly $12 billion, including debt, that will expand NRG’s footprint in Texas and along the East Coast (see
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