Today: ZM Trucks opens an assembly plant in the Golden State and a clean-tech startup wins a grant to supply renters with chargers; data centers that don’t exist yet are already haunting the grid; the future of trash.

Welcome back: The Trump administration’s efforts to bludgeon electric-vehicle incentives hit some in the industry with a jolt, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports.

But in California, ground zero in the clash over EV policy, the push for electrification is still moving forward. Investments in EV chargers and new electric-vehicle manufacturing sites are continuing, even as the Trump administration in June signed legislation that put an end to the state’s EV sales mandate and its ability to set its own diesel engine rules.

Electric-vehicle business ZM Trucks just launched its U.S. headquarters and an assembly facility in Fontana, Calif. The company’s chief executive, Joost de Vries, said that, despite current headwinds, they want the facility to withstand multiple administrations.

Another EV investment comes from the California Energy Commission, which this week awarded a $3.4 million grant to Moon Five Technologies, a clean-tech startup based in Berkeley, for more than 400 EV chargers targeting renters in disadvantaged neighborhoods, the company said.

• EV Deals Are Booming Ahead of Tax-Credit Expiration
• DOJ Sues California Regulator Over Trucking Emissions Standards
• I Drove an EV Into the Wilderness. I Never Feared Running Out of Juice.

Data centers are desperate to connect to the U.S. electric grid. What remains fuzzy is how many will ultimately be built and how much electricity they will require, the WSJ's Jennifer Hiller reports.

U.S. utilities are reporting a sharp upswing in interconnection requests from prospective data centers that will need an extraordinary amount of electricity to power America’s artificial-intelligence race. In some cases, the collective requests equal or surpass—by multiples—the existing electricity demand in a utility’s entire service region.

Take American Electric Power, a big utility that serves 11 states, and Sempra’s Texas utility Oncor. Combined, they have received requests to connect projects, many of them data centers, to the grid requiring almost 400 gigawatts of electricity. That represents more than half the peak electricity demand in the Lower 48 states on two hot days in July.

Part of the problem is the electricity needs of the same potential projects are being double, triple or quadruple counted by different utilities. Data-center developers and tech companies are peppering utilities around the country with requests for service while scouting locations where they can quickly construct massive data centers and connect to the grid.

• Electricity Prices Are Surging. The Fallout Could Hit Companies.
• AI Boom Sparks Fight Over Soaring Power Costs
• Amazon to Invest $4.4 Billion in New Zealand Data Centers

Urban planners, the refuse industry and cities across the country are reimagining how we manage our waste. The New York City Department of Sanitation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among those leveraging artificial intelligence, robotics and electric power to tackle a growing garbage crisis fueled by cheap products and throwaway culture.

Americans are among the top producers of trash per capita. Each person in the U.S. disposes of nearly a ton of refuse annually, according to 2018 figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Simplifying trash day, and diverting the 80% of reusable material that still ends up in landfills, is one key to solving our problems, Brett Berk writes for WSJ.

To ease the burden of schlepping your junk to these central bins, machinery manufacturers such as Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp., are developing self-driving battery-powered robots. They could be ordered on demand, like an Uber. Oshkosh recently unveiled such a concept, called Harr-e.

Once the waste is transported to a remote facility, AI-powered cameras and robots can identify electronics that contain hazardous or valuable materials—including copper, silver, gold and rare-earth minerals—and send them on for disassembly and harvesting before they enter the waste stream.

• The Next Big Thing in Carbon Capture? Trash.
• A Fight Over the Future of Recycling Brews
• A Treaty to Cut Plastic Pollution Is Set for Another Round of Debate

Tell me what you think: Send me your feedback and suggestions at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com or reply to any newsletter. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here.

• Musk says Optimus robots will make up 80% of Tesla’s value. (WSJ)
   
• America’s newest auto plant is full of robots. It still needs the human touch. (WSJ)
   
• Plug-in hybrid specialist Li auto flags weaker sales after earnings miss. (WSJ)
   
• Russian-owned Hungarian plant avoided €655 million in carbon payments and fines. (OPIS)
   
• How JD Vance’s hometown fell foul of Trump’s clean energy cuts. (FT)
   
• Corn and soybeans rule the American farm. Why that’s a growing problem. (WSJ)
   
• Scientists assail “cherry-picking” of Trump administration climate report. (Bloomberg)
   
• For once, some good news about a fragile ecosystem. (NYT)

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 wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.