While Puerto Rico goes dark and diesel generators scream back to life, coal plants across the mainland just got a two-year hall pass on mercury controls. It's a week of exemptions, outages, and ambition: regulators are easing pressure on aging assets, grid operators are watching reliability slip, and nuclear innovators are racing to prove that small really is beautiful. This issue of GridBrief tackles the trade-offs between patching the past and building the future—and whether small modular reactors might finally deliver what decades of big promises couldn't.

Trump Exempts Coal Plants from Mercury Rule—Southern, NRG, TVA Among Winners

More than a third of U.S. coal capacity—71.3 GW—just got a two-year exemption from the updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), thanks to a new executive order from President Trump. Utilities like Southern Co., NRG, and TVA are among the biggest beneficiaries. The logic is plain: new controls aren’t commercially viable at this scale on this timeline, and pulling reliable baseload from the grid too quickly poses a national security risk.

This isn’t about nostalgia for coal—it’s about capacity, resilience, and time. Despite years of policy headwinds, coal remains a foundational asset for regions without firm alternatives. Retirements are accelerating, conversions to gas are underway, and capacity has fallen 45% since 2013. But until new nuclear is deployed at scale or long-duration storage becomes real, regulators are still relying on coal to keep the lights on. The exemption isn’t a pivot back—it’s a recognition that we’re still standing on old steel and boilerplate.

Puerto Rico Suffers Island-Wide Blackout—Again

Puerto Rico’s power grid went to zero on Wednesday—1.46 million customers offline, transit frozen, malls shuttered, and water cut for over 78,000 people. Luma Energy says generation failed across the board; their partners at Genera PR confirm that every major plant simultaneously dropped offline. That’s not just bad luck—it’s systemic fragility masquerading as an outage.

This wasn’t about a storm. No hurricane, no fire, no physical sabotage. The grid failed under its own weight—again. Nearly eight years after Maria wiped out the island’s energy infrastructure, Puerto Rico still relies on a centralized, aging generation fleet tied together by brittle transmission. There’s been no serious pivot to hardened microgrids, islanding capability, or distributed generation. No redundancy, no blackstart capacity worth mentioning. Until the system gets redesigned for modularity and fault tolerance—nuclear, solar, storage, even diesel microgrids—this will keep happening. Not a tragedy. A known outcome.

SMRs, Not Mega Reactors, Are the Future—Says Influential Think Tank

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation just dropped the most pragmatic SMR report yet—and it cuts through the hype. The key insight? Forget the arms race for gigawatt-scale reactors like Vogtle. There aren’t enough orders to drive cost down, not enough lessons learned to de-risk deployment, and not enough political stomach for decade-long timelines. The real bet is on small modular reactors, but not for the usual reasons.

ITIF’s case isn’t techno-utopian. It’s financial. SMRs are more likely to reach price and performance parity (P3) with natural gas—but only if Washington treats them like critical infrastructure. That means stackable tax credits, DOE loan guarantees, long-term PPAs, and clear export pathways. The report also breaks from the Gen IV fetishism of other think tanks, arguing that Gen III+ light-water SMRs (like BWRX-300) are the fastest route to scale, thanks to licensing familiarity and fuel compatibility. The twist? SMRs aren’t just grid assets—they’re geopolitical ones. With the right scaffolding, America could export firm power at scale, compete with China’s nuclear diplomacy, and re-shore the nuclear supply chain. The race isn’t just to build the first. It’s to build a dozen.

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Conversation Starters

• Deloitte – Nuclear Data Center Surge
  How AI Is Driving a Nuclear Renaissance
  Data centers are set to quintuple U.S. power demand—and nuclear may be the only source firm and dense enough to keep the servers cool and the investors happy.

• CleanTechnica – Road Signs and Energy Efficiency
  Why Retroreflective Signs Might Save Your State Millions
  A surprisingly good read on how humble road sign technology has slashed the need for powered lighting—and what that means for grid demand.

• New Atlas – Rain-to-Power Tech Inches Forward
  Tiny Tubes Turn Rainfall into Power for LEDs
  It’s no hydro dam, but Singapore’s rain-powered plug-flow device could be a new frontier in microgeneration—especially in wet cities with limited grid access.

Good Bet, Bad Bet

Good Bet: BWX Technologies (BWXT)
With ITIF, Deloitte, and DOE all aligning on small modular reactors as the future of nuclear—and Trump openly backing advanced nuclear—BWX Technologies is poised to ride the first real SMR deployment wave. As the primary U.S. supplier of nuclear reactor components (including for the Navy), BWXT has contracts in hand, IP locked in, and regulatory familiarity baked into its DNA. If SMRs become America's next energy export, BWXT is already at the loading dock.

Bad Bet: Generac (GNRC)
While the DOE’s deregulation might sound like a win for manufacturers, companies like Whirlpool are now stuck in limbo. With some rules scrapped, others paused, and lawsuits sure to follow, manufacturers face uncertainty on product development, labeling, and compliance. Add in higher energy costs from less efficient appliances and a fragmented market message, and WHR is in for a turbulent spin cycle. Expect headwinds, not tailwinds.

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