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Feb. 15, 2026

Hi Friend,

Two important pieces of policy news for you today.

You've no doubt heard about last week's reversal of the endangerment finding and the blow the Trump administration dealt to federal climate policy.

As bad as that may be, it could open a new path to greenhouse gas reduction that boosts distributed energy. A 75-year-old science organization has some ideas. Check out today's feature story Local Energy Gains Stature in Climate Discussions. ​

We've also got some breaking news for you. The New Mexico State Senate narrowly approved a bill Saturday that would give state regulators oversight of large microgrids and require that the projects meet a renewable portfolio standard.

Approved by a 22-20 vote, the legislation targets microgrids of at least 20 MW.

The impetus? Big data center microgrids — in the hundreds of megawatts — or what the bill's sponsor calls "monster grids." Read about yesterday's vote and the legislative debate that preceeded it in our publication, Microgrids Now: New Mexico Senate Approves Microgrid Renewable Portfolio Standard Bill​

This is one to watch, given that other states are also expressing concern about large microgrids.

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From the Magazine

​​Local Energy Gains Stature in Climate Discussions​

1. ​New Mexico Senate Approves Microgrid Renewable Portfolio Standard Bill​
2. ​Has This City Figured Out How to Unlock the Local Value of Distributed Energy?​
3. ​Virginia Lawmakers Push for DERs — Not Just Big Power — to Meet New Energy Demand​
4. ​Survey Shows Bullish Microgrid Industry Innovating to Meet New Market Demand​
5. ​Distributed Energy Companies are Shape-Shifting​

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Stuff We're Reading Around the Web

​Footprint Project Seek Quote for Three North Carolina Microgrids​

Footprint Project is soliciting quotes from qualified vendors to design and manufacture three specific mobile microgrid assets that together will be used to provide regional resiliency support in Western North Carolina.

These assets will be staged in North Carolina and deployed to support disaster response, emergency operations, and community resilience activities during power outages and other climate-related disruptions.

Funding come from the State of North Carolina Department ofEnvironmental Quality (DEQ) / U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) pass-through award and is subject to all applicable state and federal procurement requirements.

​El Paso Electric to Offer Distributed Storage to Customers to Avoid Transmission Build Out​

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El Paso Electric Company (EPE) and Base Power have launched a pilot program that provides homes with energy storage to add grid capacity more quickly than a traditional transmission buildout.

Base Power will deploy the fleet of networked residential battery systems in EPE’s Texas service region. The utility will use the dispatchable capacity during periods of high electricity demand. At other times, homes can use batteries for resilience.

The partnership was selected through EPE’s Residential Distributed Energy Storage Pilot Program, which seeks to bring up to 10 MW of residential energy storage online ahead of the 2026 summer peak to address localized capacity constraints and improve system resiliency

​What Energy Secretary Wright Gets Wrong About the Grid​

Good piece from Canary Media’s Jeff St. John on Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s skewed portrayal of the role renewable energy plays on the grid.

In a recent presentation, Wright “trashed solar and wind for not providing much power during Winter Storm Fern — and ignored basic facts about how much renewables contribute year-round,” writes St. John. “The vast majority of the time, wind and solar — and energy storage — reliably provide electricity to the grid. During the first 10 months of 2025, the U.S. got nearly one-fifth of its electricity from these sources.”

Why is that? Because the electricity that renewables provide is cheap and plentiful. Nowadays, it is often less expensive than gas-fired power. And renewables are certainly much cheaper than coal power, even as Wright’s Department of Energy has spent the last year propping up the dirty fossil fuel at great cost to consumers.

Three Popular Energy Changemakers Podcasts

1. Gigawatt-Scale Data Centers Push the Grid to Its Limits. What's the Fix?​

2. An Energy Economist on the Abundance Agenda​

3. The Many Ways Data Centers Try to Achieve Speed to Power​

Hey, good news listeners. The Energy Changemakers Podcast has reached the top 10% of podcasts based on worldwide listens, according to Listen Score. Help us get to the top 5%. Follow us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you pick up your pods. Thank you!

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​​Thank you for reading and listening! Elisa Wood

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