Under the Department of Energy order, the PJM Interconnection can curtail power to data centers with backup generation as a last resort before instituting rolling blackouts.
The PJM Interconnection can curtail data centers and other large loads that have backup generation under an emergency order issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
PJM on Sunday asked to direct transmission owners and electric utilities in its Mid-Atlantic and Midwest footprint to curtail those facilities, if needed, for three days starting May 18 due to hot weather combined with planned power plant maintenance outages.
PJM said it expected to have less than 5,800 MW of reserves during its May 18 peak, and that Maryland and Virginia could be especially stressed by the unseasonably hot weather.
A $150 million streetscape project will transform South Broad Street’s Avenue of the Arts with trees, public art, traffic calming, and redesigned medians and sidewalks, starting this winter.
Both the median strip and sidewalks on South Broad Street will feature landscaping and art as part of a new streetscape planned to eventually extend from City Hall south to Washington Avenue. The first phase, from Spruce to Pine Streets, is pictured in this rendering.
By Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 14, 2026
Lush landscaping and public art will soon line Broad Street, impromptu performances may pop up, and vehicular traffic will be calmed with a new Avenue of the Arts south streetscape about to take shape.
The project — estimated to take $150 million and a decade to realize — will begin modestly.
The actual construction is slated to start at the end of January on a small portion of the project: remaking the median strip between Spruce and Pine Streets. That phase is expected to be completed by June.
In 2027, after the anticipated swell in tourism and street activity during the Semiquincentennial ends, sidewalk beautification will begin on both the east and west sides of that block.
Eventually, pending funding, all of the blocks between City Hall and Washington Avenue will be remade.
The argument stemmed from last year’s DA’s race, when Boyer, a political centrist who leads the powerful Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, endorsed Krasner’s challenger.
By Anna Orso, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 19, 2026, 3:45 p.m.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said that all he wanted at Philadelphia’s traditional election day lunch — where local politicians and operatives gather to gab — was some macaroni and cheese.
But he didn’t make it in the front door.
Krasner, the third-term progressive Democrat, was escorted away from the South Restaurant and Jazz Club on Tuesday afternoon after getting into a combative argument with Ryan Boyer, the union leader who hosts the twice-yearly lunch and is considered one of the most powerful unelected people in Philadelphia.
The kerfuffle stemmed from last year’s race for district attorney — when Boyer, a political centrist who leads the powerful Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council — endorsed Krasner’s challenger.
Ryan Boyer at South restaurant in Philadelphia on May 19, 2026. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Stanford left shortly after the dust-up between Boyer and Krasner, saying public displays of disaffection were not her thing.
Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner
The altercation began while an Inquirer reporter was interviewing Krasner in front of the restaurant on North Broad Street. Boyer attempted to shake Krasner’s hand and welcomed him to the event, and Krasner quickly pivoted to tell Boyer, “You owe me money.”
“I don’t care. You’re talking about me,” Boyer said. “It’s a free society.”
The two briefly argued over whether Krasner eats macaroni and cheese (he says he does) before City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. intervened to bring down the temperature.
“He’s an honest man,” Krasner said of Jones. “But that’s not what [Boyer] is. How did you get the nickname, Lyin’ Ryan? How did you get that nickname?”
In a court filing, the administration signaled support for Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company in a lawsuit challenging xAI’s generators at a huge Mississippi data center.
The entrance to xAI’s power plant in Southaven, Miss., in February. Photo Credit…Brad J. Vest for The New York Times
The United States government is preparing for a possible intervention to help defend Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company from a lawsuit that accuses the company of illegally operating gas turbines in Mississippi to power a large data center, court filings showed.
The NAACP sued Mr. Musk’s company, xAI, which powers the Grok chatbot, last month, claiming that the company was operating 27 gas turbines without an air permit in Southaven, Miss. It effectively built a power plant for its Colossus 2 data center, sending pollution into nearby neighborhoods, the NAACP claimed.
The A.I. company, now owned by Mr. Musk’s space venture SpaceX, has consistently said that its turbines are mobile and temporary, and thus exempt from more stringent air permitting. It has also pointed out that gas turbines are a cleaner alternative to other forms of power, like coal or diesel generators.
Now, the Justice Department is preparing for a possible intervention in support of Mr. Musk.
Welcome to Keyport, where the furor over chemical contamination and a shocking number of cancer cases has finally reached full force.
Concerned residents flock to town meetings. The governor’s office is up in arms. The state DEP and Department of Health have issued a joint statement. U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-6th Dist., fired off a letter demanding “urgent” action.
All of which begs the question: where’s everyone been for the past four decades?
Editor’s Note: This is just one of dozens of stories enjoyed today by subscribers to our newsletter, EnviroPolitics. Try it for free for 30 days
The Captain Renaults of environmental protection in New Jersey profess to be shocked, shocked that pollutants are threatening public health in Keyport.
But c’mon, who are they kidding? The toxic brew of cancer-causing chemicals at the site of the former Aeromarine landfill is no secret. It’s been documented since the mid-1980s.
And all it’s done since then is fester, contaminating groundwater, leaching into a creek that flows to the Raritan Bay — and possibly contributing to a cancer cluster of alarming proportions.
The passivity of the public and the sporadic, ineffective efforts of elected officials, regulators, and the courts to come to terms with this toxic time bomb are hard to comprehend.
The Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) released a new study finding that industrial-scale fishing has removed “substantial biomass from the ocean’s twilight zone” for several decades, casting doubt on the claim that this ecosystem remains unexploited.
The study, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Decades of Industrial-Scale Fishing in the Ocean’s Twilight Zone,” focuses on the “dark web” species, which WHOI refers to as “a poorly understood group of large midwater fishes” such as pomfrets and snake mackerels. These organisms that live in the mesopelagic zone, which is about 1,000-2,000 meters below the surface, remain largely uncovered in scientific studies and are regularly caught by commercial fisheries, according to the release.
Editor’s Note: This is just one of dozens of stories enjoyed today by subscribers to our newsletter, EnviroPolitics. Try it for free for 30 days
“Much of the discussion around the ocean twilight zone has assumed large-scale fishing there has not really begun,” Martin Arostegui, lead author of the study and research associate at WHOI, said. “Our study shows that for these larger midwater fishes, that is simply not the case.”
In the release, the researchers suggest improved catch reporting and a better integration of these species into fisheries management frameworks. With improved data and coordinated policy action for mesopelagic zone fish, those working in fisheries could better understand these species beyond just commercial catch.
