Today: The deal would combine two of the largest U.S. utilities into an East Coast energy titan; coal makes a comeback, fueled by Iran war; House passes ethanol bill; Canada finalizes carbon-tax deal amid pipeline push.

Welcome back: NextEra Energy has agreed to buy Dominion Energy in a roughly $67 billion deal that would create a utility giant and represent one of the biggest acquisitions of the year.

The Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Hiller and Ben Dummett report that the mostly stock deal would combine two of the largest U.S. utilities into an East Coast energy titan with territory in Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia, and require approval from a gauntlet of state and federal regulators.

While known as a clean-energy heavyweight, NextEra is increasingly leaning in to natural gas to meet surging power demands. CEO John Ketchum has been an advocate of “all of the above” electricity generation and the idea that data centers should bring their own power generation to the table.

Dominion has a large portfolio of gas-fired power plants and is sitting on a mountain of future electricity demand growth in Virginia, which is home to “data center alley,” a massive concentration of data centers. 

The deal comes as the utility industry faces an upswing in demand, much of it driven by concerns over artificial intelligence and the build-out of data centers that require an insatiable amount of electricity. Access to power has become a key hurdle in the race to build data centers quickly.

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Coal is making a comeback. Countries around the world are returning to the highly polluting source of power after the Iran war effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz and cut off around 20% of global liquefied natural gas supplies.

The Journal's Rebecca Feng reports that Taiwan is restarting idled coal-fired power plants and South Korea boosted the amount of electricity it generated from coal by more than a third last month. In Europe, Italy has put its coal plants on standby as it girds for a prolonged energy shock.

The conflict with Iran means an expected decline in coal demand by the end of this decade will likely now be delayed, said an analyst. The comeback for coal has echoes of 2022, when tight gas supplies following the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine led countries around the world back to coal in order to keep power flowing to homes and factories.

• U.S. energy exports are surging, depleting domestic stocks and driving up fuel prices for American consumers. (WSJ)
• Americans spent $45 billion more on gasoline and diesel during the Iran war than the same period a year ago. (WSJ)

Advocates for ethanol blended gasoline got a long-awaited win in the House, but a bill allowing year-round sale faces a murky future in the Senate. The Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act would waive air-pollution restrictions allowing for the sale of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol in summer months, the WSJ's Kirk Maltais reports.

Proponents of the bill said it would mitigate rising gasoline prices, while boosting demand for corn grown by U.S. farmers. Opponents said it would create more air pollution and force small refineries to close, while not benefitting U.S. agriculture as much as previously advertised.

In the decade prior to the bill’s passage, agricultural groups joined clean-energy advocates in support of the measure, seeing it as a way to boost domestic corn consumption.

More recently, however, battle lines have been redrawn, resulting in an unlikely alliance between the Renewable Fuel Association and the American Petroleum Institute. The API changed its stance last year as new rules shifted more ethanol-blending volumes to larger refineries from smaller refineries, which still have volumes waived.

• The Department of Agriculture lowered its 2026 U.S. wheat production outlook to 1.56 billion bushels amid drought conditions. (WSJ)

Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta agreed Friday to a stringent levy on carbon from its energy producers, the first of a series of conditions it has to meet before Prime Minister Mark Carney backs a new crude-carrying pipeline to the Pacific Coast, the Journal's Paul Vieira reports.

The higher industrial carbon tax is the latest development in Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s bid to build a new pipeline aimed at meeting the energy demands from the faster-growing economies in Asia. With a deal on an industrial carbon tax now settled, Canadian officials will now focus on talks with energy producers in Alberta about the construction of a carbon-capture storage project that Carney has repeatedly said is required before pipeline construction can start.

Energy producers indicated they had reservations about deal, arguing any industrial carbon tax imposes uncompetitive costs on the Canadian sector.

• Canada’s target to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is in question after Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will “update” its climate plan, without offering further detail. (Bloomberg)

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• Beijing threatens retaliation after the EU banned funding for renewable energy projects using Chinese inverters. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• The Iran war has boosted the low-carbon transition as renewable energy is seen as less vulnerable to future price shocks. (Bloomberg)
   
• Autodesk, EY and Salesforce top this carbon credits leaderboard. Here’s what you can learn from them. (Trellis)
   
• PayPal reached a $30 million settlement with the Justice Department to end a probe into funding of minority-owned businesses. (WSJ)
   
• U.K. yacht maker Sunseeker pleaded guilty to DOJ charges of using illegally harvested Burmese teak. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• Installations of grid batteries, which can store solar and other energy for later use, surged by 48% in 2025 from the year prior. (Canary Media)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send your comments to editor Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Pro Sustainable Business team on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.