Today: Orsted to resume work on East Coast renewables development; Trump praises Microsoft’s pledge to lower AI-linked electricity costs; developing a viable Venezuelan mining industry will be a challenge.

Welcome back: Danish renewable energy company Orsted can get back to work on its Revolution Wind project for now, despite the Trump administration’s attempt to shut it down.

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson writes that a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday agreed to the company’s request for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s pause on the $5 billion project.

The U.S. government in December paused the federal leases for five East Coast wind projects “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.”

At a hearing in D.C. for Equinor on Wednesday, a judge is expected to deliver his decision imminently.

Janice Schneider, a lawyer representing Revolution Wind, said at the hearing on Monday that the project is at a “crucial stage” of construction, and that the pause was costing the company $1.44 million a day.

Dominion Energy Virginia has a similar hearing set for Friday, but at a different court nearby in the Eastern District of Virginia.

• Orsted shares jumped after a U.S. judge allowed its Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island to resume work. (WSJ)
• Oil companies are nervous about Trump’s wind crackdown. (Barron's)
• U.K. stepped up support for offshore wind in the latest subsidy auction, showing government is still set on 2030 clean-power goal. (Bloomberg)

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Microsoft promised to pay higher utility bills for all of its U.S. data centers powering artificial-intelligence models, a pledge that drew praise from President Trump and is designed to address local fears that AI is pushing up electricity prices.

The Wall Street Journal's Amrith Ramkumar and Sebastian Herrera report that the tech company committed to paying high-enough electricity rates to cover the electricity costs of its data centers so they aren’t passed on to consumers. It also pledged to replenish more water than it draws locally and pay full property tax. The promises build on current practices in states such as Wisconsin that the company is now applying to its entire portfolio.

Meanwhile, America’s AI boom is pushing the nation’s largest power-grid operator to the brink of a supply crisis, the Journal's Katherine Blunt and Jennifer Hiller write.

Sixty-seven million people in a 13-state region stretching from New Jersey to Kentucky get their power from a market operated by nonprofit PJM. So, too, do the many AI data centers springing up in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” which have a bottomless appetite for electricity.

Now rates are going up for consumers. Older power plants are going out of service faster than new ones can be built. And the grid’s capacity is in danger of maxing out during periods of high demand.

• Meta Platforms created a new “top-level initiative” led by senior  executives to oversee AI infrastructure buildout. (WSJ)

When President Trump was asked why his administration swooped into Venezuela to oust its leader, one thing was clear: He was after the country’s resources, WSJ Pro's Yusuf Khan writes for Dow Jones Risk Journal.

“We are going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” Trump said in a press conference. But besides oil, the South American country also promises tons of minerals, some potentially crucial to U.S. ambitions. Getting those out, however, is likely to be a challenge.

Venezuela is rich in minerals like coltan, used in smartphones; bauxite, used to produce aluminum; and iron ore, needed for steel. It also has lots of rare-earth minerals, according to a 1990 U.S. Geological Survey report.

These are key for green technologies, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, and also weapons. However, getting private-sector involvement will likely be a challenge. Venezuela’s mineral resources are deep in the rainforest interior, the USGS report says, and have not been explored well, highlighting both the promise and reality of the territory.

• Energy firms mull carbon risk of Venezuela’s viscous oil. Heavy Orinoco Belt crude is especially emissions intensive. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)

• Small-scale natural catastrophes such as wildfires, thunderstorms and floods are becoming costlier for insurers. (WSJ)
   
• Bain & Co. signs DAC-based carbon-removal purchase agreement with Oxy's 1Point5. (ESG Today)
   
• BP flagged a $5 billion write-down in its gas and low-carbon segment and warned of weak oil-trading performance. (WSJ)
   
• U.S. greenhouse gas emissions ticked higher last year driven by data-center buildout and rise in coal generation. (Bloomberg)
   
• Decades after governments dismantled food reserves, placing their faith in global trade, countries are rebuilding emergency stockpiles. (FT)
   
• New York is preparing to loosen its environmental law to make it faster and cheaper to build housing in the state. (WSJ)
   
• Last year was one of the hottest on record and cost insurers the most ever in claims for weather-related events. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.