You may be wondering what to do if creamer has been sitting in your fridge for several days or is past the expiration date but is still unfinished.
Contrary to popular belief, while expiration dates are valuable indicators of guaranteed freshness, they don’t necessarily indicate whether the product is truly spoiled. “Generally, when we talk about shelf life and expiration dates, we are talking about limits to the quality of the product, not the safety,” Craig says.
However, to err on the side of caution, he recommends only using the product if it’s a few days to a week past its expiration, especially a liquid creamer or one that involves dairy, “but I wouldn’t push much past that,” he says. Technically, powdered coffee creamer alternatives can last in the cupboard for up to two years beyond their sell-by date. However, they might not be great to eat for too long after the expiration date.
On that note, although the smell, taste, texture, or even color might still be intact, Craig says that this isn’t the only thing you should be wary of if your creamer has been sitting around for a while. The longer the product remains unused, the more time it has to grow bacteria that can potentially wreak havoc on your digestive system.
“It might make you queasy or maybe even cause an upset stomach,” he says. But, rest assured, Craig says, sipping on some expired creamer won’t necessarily lead to more serious consequences like a salmonella or listeria infection. Listeria exposure is only a serious risk in unpasteurized dairy products, like some soft cheeses. Most commercially available dairy creamers and cream-based products are pasteurized at a very high heat that kills bacteria and other microbes. However, there can still be a risk of bacterial contamination.
How Long Does Coffee Creamer Last After Opening?
Keep in mind that although creamer can last a few weeks, it’s heavily contingent on how it’s been handled. “Once a product is open, it’s exposed to everything, meaning if you aren’t careful and leave the creamer at room temperature for a longer time, this could put it in the danger zone and encourage extra bacterial growth,” Craig says.
Ultimately, this means the creamer could expire faster than its predetermined expiration date.
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Anthropic has appointed Irina Ghose, a former Microsoft India managing director, to lead its India business as the U.S. AI startup prepares to open an office in Bengaluru. The move underscores how India is becoming a key battleground for AI companies looking to expand beyond the U.S. for major growth markets.
Ghose brings deep big-tech operating experience to the role. She spent 24 years at Microsoft before stepping down in December 2025. Her appointment gives Anthropic a seasoned executive with local enterprise and government relationships as it gears up to establish an on-the-ground presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
India has become one of Anthropic’s most strategically important markets, with the country already ranking as the second-largest user base for Claude and usage heavily skewing toward technical and work-related tasks, including software development. Arch-rival OpenAI is also sharpening its focus on the market with plans to open an office in New Delhi — a sign India is fast becoming one of the most contested arenas in the global race to commercialize generative AI.
While India offers enormous scale — with more than a billion internet subscribers and over 700 million smartphone users — converting that reach into meaningful revenue has proven difficult, pushing AI companies to experiment with aggressive pricing and promotions. OpenAI last year introduced ChatGPT Go, its under-$5 plan aimed at attracting Indian users, and later made it available free for a year in the country.
Similar dynamics are playing out for Anthropic: its Claude app recorded a 48% increase from the previous year in downloads in India in September, reaching about 767,000 installs, while consumer spending surged 572% to $195,000 for the month, per Appfigures — still modest compared with the U.S., where September spending hit $2.5 million.
Anthropic has been stepping up its engagement in India at the highest levels. Chief executive Dario Amodei visited in October and met corporate executives and lawmakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss the company’s expansion plans and growing adoption of its tools. Anthropic had also explored a potential partnership with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries to broaden access to Claude, as TechCrunch reported previously. Reliance, however, ultimately struck a deal with Google to offer its Gemini AI Pro plan free to Jio subscribers. That move came as rival Bharti Airtel partnered with Perplexity to bundle access to its premium subscription, underscoring how India’s telecom giants have become critical distribution gatekeepers in the race to scale consumer AI services.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the move, Ghose said she would focus on working with Indian enterprises, developers and startups adopting Claude for “mission-critical” use cases, pointing to growing demand for what she described as “high-trust, enterprise-grade AI.” She added that AI tailored to local languages could be a “force multiplier” across sectors including education and healthcare — signaling Anthropic’s intent to deepen adoption beyond early tech users into larger institutions and the public sector.
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The push by Anthropic, OpenAI, and Perplexity comes as India’s homegrown GenAI ecosystem remains relatively early-stage. While the country has a deep pool of software talent and a fast-growing base of AI users, it has produced few startups building large foundation models, with investors instead largely backing application-layer companies rather than committing the scale of capital typically required to train frontier systems.
The appointment also comes ahead of India’s AI Impact Summit 2026 in February, where the Indian government is expected to bring together AI startups, global CEOs, and industry experts to discuss the next phase of AI deployment in the country. The summit is part of New Delhi’s broader effort to signal support for domestic AI development and position India as a serious player in the global AI landscape, as competition intensifies across major markets.
Anthropic is also building out its India team, with job listings for roles including startup and enterprise account executives as well as a partner sales manager, signaling a push to deepen its go-to-market efforts and tap Indian businesses and startups as customers as it expands its presence in the country.
For Anthropic, the hire adds senior local leadership as it looks to turn India’s surging usage into a durable business, navigating a market where distribution partnerships, pricing pressure, and enterprise adoption will shape which AI players emerge as long-term winners.
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Gov. Greg Abbott is entering 2026 with a staggering $105.7 million on hand to power his reelection bid and his efforts to expand Republican dominance down the ballot in Texas, his campaign announced Thursday.
Abbott raised $22.7 million from July through December with more than 48,000 contributions from every county in Texas, his campaign said, bringing his total war chest to nine figures. Over the course of his four gubernatorial campaigns, his team added, Abbott received more than a million unique individual contributions.
“The outpouring of support from across the state sends a powerful message about the values Texans expect our governor to defend,” Abbott Campaign Manager Kim Snyder said. “As socialists win elections elsewhere, Texans are stepping up to support Governor Abbott because he protects our way of life.”
Abbott has vowed to spend heavily to flip Harris County, a Democratic stronghold, red.
“I’ve got $90 million in my bank account, and I’m going to spend most of it in Harris County, Texas, to make sure, precinct by precinct, we turn out voters who voted in the presidential election, turn out voters who never voted before,” Abbott said in October. “We got to win Harris County and make Harris County dark red.”
Meanwhile, Abbott’s leading Democratic challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, announced raising $1.3 million in the 10 weeks since she launched her campaign. The average donation she received was under $50, her campaign said, with zero contributions from corporate PACs.
“I’m so grateful to be running a people-powered campaign that is fighting for a more prosperous and affordable future for working Texans,” Hinojosa said. “Greg Abbott can keep lining his pockets with the money he gets from selling out working families, but across the state, we are seeing Texans fired up and ready for change.”
Bobby Cole, a retired firefighter and rancher running in the Democratic primary, has just $27,465 on hand after raising under $61,000 from July through December and spending almost $154,000, according to his filing with the Texas Ethics Commission.
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Fans of the popular series, “Euphoria,” starring Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney, are excited for the return of season three after an extended delay following the pandemic.
Though years have passed in both the storyline and since the last season aired in 2022, not much has changed for Sweeney’s character in terms of her provocative scenes.
She portrays the series’ character Cassie Howard, a sweet but insecure high schooler with a desperate need for male validation and often objectified by men who encourage her to make destructive decisions.
Sydney Sweeney wags her tail and shakes her chest in a bunny costume in the new ‘Euphoria’ trailer. (Photo by @sydney_sweeney/Instagram)
The character is frequently shown in revealing scenes or suggestive settings, and the trailer suggests she’s leaning into that persona as part of her career.
In the nearly three-minute clip, Cassie is no longer taking her clothes off for free. Set five years after high school, the new season will show her attempting to monetize her image by launching a subscription-based content platform.
Dressed in a bunny costume with ears that displays playful cosplay elements, Cassie is seen filming provocative content, with the help of either her nanny or a housekeeper recording. In one scene, she’s shown in a garden striking exaggerated poses, while another shows her positioned on a bed as she records herself.
“I was just filming content,” she tells her partner, Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi, — who also happens to be her former best friend’s ex. Despite that history, Cassie becomes involved in a secret relationship with Nate, even though he is the on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend of her best friend, Maddy Perez.
Toward the end of the new trailer, Cassie is shown once again posing provocatively. Another major update reveals that Howard and Jacobs are now engaged and, judging by the footage, appear headed for the altar. Still, tension surfaces before they get there, as Jacobs voices his unease about her continued online content.
“I work all day,” Jacobs says in one scene from the trailer. “My bride-to-be is all over the internet.”
“Euphoria” follows the life of Rue, played by Zendaya, who struggles with a drug addiction in high school. The show explores themes like self-esteem, relationship issues, and family drama through the backgrounds and stories of the people in her friend group.
One X user shocked by Howard’s scenes in the trailer wrote, “OF on a series..Didn’t see that one coming.”
Another viewer who appeared eager for Sweeney’s character shared two screenshots from the garden scene, adding, “Honestly, take my money.”
Daily Mail readers were similarly fixated on Sweeney’s figure, a recurring reaction whenever the actress wears form-fitting or revealing looks. One commenter summed it up bluntly: “They’re real, and they’re spectacular!”
Others leaned into broader commentary, with one reader questioning, “Why? It sounds like it would make a pretty good storyline for that type of series. Young people have to really look at those things these days.”
But one critic who wasn’t interested in seeing the actress without her clothes typed, “Can she do anything without taking off her clothes?”
Sweeney discussed her comfort with revealing scenes and being unclothed on camera, explaining that although she’s felt uneasy on other sets, she didn’t have that experience on “Euphoria” due to the show’s director, Sam Levinson.
Sweeney opened up about her comfortability when it comes to getting bare for the camera. She said she felt the discomfort on other sets, but didn’t feel that way on the set of “Euphoria,” thanks to director Sam Levinson.
“Sam is amazing,” she told The Independent in 2022, “there are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it’. I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”
“Euphoria” season 3 premieres on April 12 on HBO Max.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered a contrasting view of manufacturing in Detroit Thursday, two days after President Donald Trump defended his tariff strategy in the Motor City.
Whitmer, a term-limited Democrat who is in her last year as governor, said in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show that the administration’s tariff strategy has hurt American auto manufacturing and is benefiting Chinese competitors. It’s a message she has repeated over the past year as economic uncertainty has rippled across the automobile sector.
“This will only get worse without a serious shift in national policy,” Whitmer said.
Her remarks followed Trump’s speech defending his economic policy Tuesday in Detroit, a major hub of automobile manufacturing. He also toured the factory floor of a Ford plant in Dearborn.
“All U.S. automakers are doing great,” Trump said.
Whitmer offered a differing picture of the impact, saying that American manufacturing has contracted for months leading to job loss and production cuts. She has remained firmly opposed to Trump’s tariff strategy since last year, especially as her state partners closely with Canadian business. Automobile parts often cross the U.S.-Canadian border several times in the assembly process.
“America stands more alone than she has in decades,” Whitmer said. “And perhaps no industry has seen more change and been more impacted than our auto industry.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whitmer’s speech.
Whitmer has kept a more cordial relationship with Trump in his second term compared to his first. The relationship included a few White House visits last year. Long considered a possible Democratic candidate for president, Whitmer’s strategy is notably different than other potential 2028 names who have take more public, combative approaches to Trump, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
In her address, her first of the year, Whitmer said every time she has met with Trump this past year, she has told him that hurting the U.S.-Canadian relationship only helps Chinese competition.
Trump changed his tune when it comes to automobiles in the last year. He originally announced a 25% tariff on automobiles and parts only to later relax the policy as domestic manufactures sought relief from the threat of rising production costs.
On his tour in the Detroit area, Trump suggested the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a major trade agreement he negotiated in his first term, was irrelevant, although he provided few other details The UMCA is up for review this year.
Whitmer defended the trade agreement in her speech.
“When we fight our neighbors, however, China wins,” she said.
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SAN ANTONIO – Victor Wembanyama returned from a first-quarter injury scare to score 22 points and grab 10 rebounds and lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 119-101 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.
Stephon Castle added 19 points and 10 assists and Julian Champagnie had 13 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio. The Spurs led by 39 points early in the fourth quarter.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 21 points as Milwaukee suffered its third straight loss.
Wembanyama startled the sellout crowd at the Frost Bank Center and it had nothing to do with his freshly shaved scalp.
He returned to the court after making knee-to-knee contact with Antetokounmpo’s left leg under the Bucks basket with 9:18 remaining in the first quarter. Wembanyama dropped to the court in pain before rising and hobbling unassisted in a half sprint toward the locker room.
The 7-foot-4 center from France suffered a hyperextended knee on Dec. 31 in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks in a similar play. He returned to watch from the bench on New Year’s Eve but missed the next two games.
Wembanyama returned to the bench at the close of the first quarter Thursday, but this time he went back on the court to start the second quarter.
Wembanyama had 11 points, six rebounds and a blocked shot while playing 12 minutes, 27 seconds in the second quarter.
San Antonio outscored Milwaukee 35-26 during the second quarter in taking a 66-53 lead at the half. The lead expanded to 37 points in the third quarter as both teams sat their starters to open the fourth.
Kyle Kuzma had 18 points and Bobby Portis added 13 points for the Bucks.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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A judge in Milwaukee brought a 13-year quest for justice by a grieving father to a close on Thursday, accepting a plea deal for two men charged criminally for their role in the killing of his teenaged son.
Robert W. Beringer and Jesse R. Cole pleaded guilty to felony murder under a deferred prosecution agreement that allows them to avoid jail time yet publicly stand accountable for their actions leading to the 2012 death of Corey Stingley. The men helped restrain the 16-year-old inside a convenience store after an attempted shoplifting incident involving $12 worth of alcohol.
“What happened to Corey Stingley should have never happened. His death was unnecessary, brutal and devastating,” Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the judge in a letter filed with the court.
Both of Stingley’s parents spoke directly to the judge in an hourlong hearing in a courtroom filled with family members, community activists, spiritual leaders and some of the teen’s former classmates.
“Corey was my baby. A mother is not supposed to bury her child,” Alicia Stingley told the judge. She spoke of the grace of forgiveness, and after the hearing she hugged Beringer. The Stingleys’ surviving son, Cameron, shook both men’s hands.
The agreement requires Cole and Beringer to make a one-time $500 donation each to a charitable organization of the Stingley family’s choosing in honor of Corey. After six months, if the two men comply with the terms and do not commit any crimes, the prosecution will dismiss the case, according to documents filed with the court.
ProPublica, in a 2023 story, reexamined the incident, the legal presumptions, the background of the men and Stingley’s father’s relentless legal campaign to bring the men into court. The three men previously had defended their actions as justified and necessary to deal with an emergency as they held Stingley while waiting for police to arrive.
Ozanne, who was appointed in 2022 to review the case, recommended the agreement after the two men and the Stingley family engaged in an extensive restorative justice process, in which they sat face to face, under the supervision of a retired judge, and shared their thoughts and feelings. Ozanne said in the letter that the process “appears to have been healing for all involved.”
From the bench, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello said she found the agreement to be fair and just and commended the work of all the parties to come to a resolution.
“Maybe this is the spark that makes other people see similarities in each other and not differences,” she said. “Maybe this is the spark that makes them think about restorative justice and how do we come together. And maybe this is part of the spark that decreases the violence in our community and leads us to finding the paths to have those circles to sit down and have the dialogue and to have that conversation. So maybe there’s some good that comes out of it.”
Craig Stingley, Corey’s father, said during the hearing that his 13-year struggle “has turned into triumph.”
Earlier, the Stingley family filed a statement with the court affirming its support for the agreement and the restorative justice process.
“We sought not vengeance, but acknowledgement — of Corey’s life, his humanity, and the depth of our loss,” it states. “We believe this agreement honors Corey’s memory and offers a model of how people can come together, even after profound harm, to seek understanding and healing.”
The family remembered Stingley as a “vibrant, loving son, brother, and friend” and found that the restorative dialogues brought “truth, understanding, and a measure of healing that the traditional court process could not.”
Jonathan LaVoy, Cole’s attorney, told reporters after the hearing: “This has been a long 13 years. He’s been under investigation with multiple reviews over that time. I think everyone is just so happy that this day has come, that there’s been some finality to this whole situation.”
In a joint written statement provided to the court, Beringer and Cole said they came to recognize “the profound ripple effects” of the incident and their connection to Stingley’s death. They expressed sorrow that Stingley’s “time on this earth ended far too soon.”
The proceeding followed years of work by Craig Stingley to force the justice system to view his son as a crime victim whose life was unlawfully cut short by Beringer, Cole and another store patron, Mario Laumann, who died in 2022.
Prosecutors at the time declined to charge anyone, saying the men did not intend to kill Corey Stingley when they tackled him and pinned him to the floor of VJ’s Food Mart, in West Allis, Wisconsin. They were detaining him for police after the youth attempted to steal bottles of Smirnoff Ice. In surveillance video, Laumann can be seen holding Stingley in a chokehold while the other two men aided in restraining him. A witness told police Laumann was “squeezing the hell” out of the teenager.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Stingley died of a brain injury due to asphyxiation after a “violent struggle with multiple individuals.” It ruled the death a homicide.
Under Wisconsin law, the charge of felony murder is brought in cases in which someone dies during the commission of another alleged crime — in this case false imprisonment.
Ozanne wrote to the court that his analysis found that “there is no doubt Cole, Beringer and Laumann caused Corey Stingley’s death.”
All three men, he wrote, restrained Stingley “intentionally and without his consent” and without legal authority to “arrest” him. “Simply put, Corey, a teenager, was tackled and restrained to the ground by three grown men because they suspected him of shoplifting,” Ozanne wrote. “They killed him while piled on top of his body awaiting the police.”
But he noted that there is no evidence that Beringer or Cole knew that Stingley was in medical distress during the incident. He described their hold on him as “rudimentary detention techniques.”
It was Laumann, Ozanne concluded, who “strangled Corey Stingley to death.” Ozanne wrote that surveillance video shows Laumann’s arm for several minutes across Stingley’s neck “as he fades out of consciousness.”
If Laumann were still alive, Ozanne said in court, prosecutors likely would have been seeking a lengthy prison term for him.
Defendant Jesse Cole sits in the courtroom on Thursday before a hearing on his case.Taylor Glascock for ProPublicaDefendant Robert Beringer walks into the Milwaukee County courtroom.Taylor Glascock for ProPublica
Stingley died the same year as Trayvon Martin, a Black Florida teen shot to death by a neighborhood volunteer watchman, who was acquitted in 2013. Martin’s case drew national attention and led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement. But Stingley’s death after being restrained by three white men did not garner widespread notice outside Wisconsin.
Over the years, Craig Stingley unsuccessfully advocated for the men to face charges. Two prosecutors reviewed the case, but nothing came of it.
He then discovered an obscure “John Doe” statute, dating back to Wisconsin’s territorial days, that allows a private citizen to ask a judge to consider whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom when a district attorney can’t or won’t do so.
Stingley filed such a petition in late 2020. That led to the appointment of Ozanne as a special prosecutor to review the matter yet again. In 2024, Ozanne informed the Stingley family that his office had found evidence of a crime but that a guilty verdict was not assured for the remaining two men.
That set in motion an effort to achieve healing and accountability through a restorative justice process. Restorative justice programs bring together survivors and offenders for conversations, led by trained facilitators, to work toward understanding and healing and how best to make amends. Last year, Stingley and members of his family met on separate occasions with both Cole and Beringer through the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice, part of the law school at Milwaukee’s Marquette University.
The discussions led to the deferred prosecution agreement.
In an interview, Anthony Neff, a longtime friend of Craig Stingley’s, recalled seeing Corey Stingley in a hospital bed, attached to tubes and a ventilator in his final days. Corey Stingley had been a running back on his high school football team. Everyone in the program showed up for the funeral, Neff said.
“Coaches. The ball boys. The cheerleaders. I mean, they’re all standing in solidarity with Craig and the family,” he said.
In the years since, he and other golfing buddies of Craig Stingley’s have provided emotional support in his quest. Neff called it “a lesson in civics, a master lesson in civics.”
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The “Happy Birthday” song is a tune that has been sung across the world translating into different languages and cultures. In 1980, legendary musician Stevie Wonder made a new rendition of the song that was not only a groovy, alternative version of the original— it holds a deeper meaning. One that helped to highlight an honorable day for one of America’s most notable peace figures.
Wonder, an activist in his own right, had lobbied to have Dr. King’s birthday as a holiday in the U.S. In January 1979, on what would’ve been Dr. King’s 50th birthday, the artist performed at the Georgia state capitol building, calling for his birthday to be made into a holiday. Wonder told the concert goers to start calling their congressional representatives to make Dr. King’s birthday an offical day of observance.
Wonder met Dr. King in the 1960s when the singer was a teenager. When he got the idea for the song to honor Dr. King, the singer reached out to Coretta Scott King to tell her of the song and the goal he had in mind for it.
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“I said to her, you know, ‘I had a dream about this song. And I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. We were marching, too, with petition signs to make for Dr. King’s birthday to become a national holiday,’” Wonder told CNN in 2011.
After a four-month concert tour across the United States that doubled as a King Day awareness campaign, his rendition of “Happy Birthday” came to life in 1980 on his Hotter Than July album, three years before Martin Luther King Day was officially established.
It was an ode to the late peace activist and his impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Wonder continued to fight for Dr. King’s birthday to become a national holiday, performing at rallies in the early 1980s. In 1981, he performed at the National Mall in D.C., an event held on Dr. King’s birthday that attracted over 25,000 people, according to Grunge.
In 1983, after years of Wonder’s public rallying and other activists’ push, the House of Representatives passed the Martin Luther King birthday bill, and in Oct. 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed it into law.
The first Martin Luther King Day was celebrated on January 20, 1986, and Wonder performed at an “All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.,” playing his rendition of “Happy Birthday” in honor of Dr. King and his fight to carry on his historic legacy.
Texas’ grid operator is developing a new process to evaluate multiple large-load interconnection requests at the same time. The question for cryptocurrency miners and data center developers that are already in line is: who gets to go first?
That should hopefully be sorted out by month’s end. That’s when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) hopes to have criteria announced for which energy-intensive projects could be considered for “Batch Zero,” the first group to go through ERCOT’s revised planning process.
At a Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) meeting on Thursday, Jeff Billo, ERCOT’s vice president of interconnection and grid analysis, said that for “Batch Zero,” the grid operator will consider proposed large load interconnection requests from projects that have been in the queue for some time and don’t need to be restudied. Projects that are less far along will be studied in a later batch, Billo said.
These requests primarily come from data centers, crypto mines, industrial sites and hydrogen projects. Billo also said that just because some existing projects in ERCOT’s queue might warrant another transmission study doesn’t mean they couldn’t still be considered for “Batch Zero.”
“There are a lot of details to fill out there,” Billo said. “We are still really early in the process of designing how that batch study would work.”
The timing of a transmission study matters greatly for companies with billions of dollars at stake in developments requiring grid connection. PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson said one of the largest points of contention among data center developers has been uncertainty about where their projects stand, despite some having been in the queue for years. Gleeson said it’s important not to leave these companies in limbo while ERCOT sorts out its new procedures for reviewing multiple requests from large energy users together and allocating existing transmission capacity among them. ERCOT previously studied large load users one at a time.
“Transparency around this is going to be critically important to ensuring success,” the chairman said.
The planning around “Batch Zero” comes as ERCOT is well into reforming its transmission planning procedures. With the increasing number of large loads seeking to connect to the grid, ERCOT and utilities cannot keep up with the required transmission planning and end issuing restudies.
The current system, built for a large load queue totalling 40 to 50 projects, is now bogged down by the 225 new interconnection requests ERCOT received last year, according to a December report.
Under its previous planning process, by the time one data center finished planning studies, the results would often have to be reconsidered almost immediately, as more projects joined the interconnection queue and changed the local transmission needs and reliability.
The consensus from early conversations with corporate stakeholders, including Google, Meta, CenterPoint, Amazon and OpenAI—all looking for grid capacity in Texas—was that the uncertainty in the current process creates undue risk for developers with existing interconnection requests.
The proposed batch method aims to ameliorate that.
The outcome of the new process would determine the number of megawatts that Texas’ independent grid could reliably deliver and the additional transmission projects needed to enable full interconnection.
If a developer requested a 500-megawatt project be interconnected in 2028, but the batch study showed that ERCOT could only reliably provide 100 megawatts and would need to undergo a transmission upgrade project in 2030, the developer would be offered an “on-ramp” of 100 megawatts until the transmission upgrade is completed in 2030, Billo said as an example. Then, the developer would receive the full 500 megawatts of grid power.
At the end of the batch study process, developers would have a set amount of time to make a financial commitment, Billo said, to demonstrate they will proceed with the project. After that, ERCOT could begin a transmission project to cover “firm” commitments, which could then be utilized in other batch studies.
The initial sentiment from “hyperscale” data center users like Google, Amazon Web Services, Meta and Microsoft, developers and independent power generators is that a batch-based approach is necessary for large load interconnection, Billo said. “Everyone that we have talked to so far has been supportive of us moving to a batch study process,” Billo said.
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Arcelia Martin is an award-winning journalist at Inside Climate News. She covers renewable energy in Texas from her base in Dallas. Before joining ICN in 2025, Arcelia was a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News and at The Tennessean. Originally from San Diego, California, she’s a graduate of Gonzaga University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Trump’s considering invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, sending in the Guard. This is a battle of wills. The stakes are high. Can the federal government enforce immigration law like the country voted for? Or will sanctuary states dominate and become third world fortresses inside of America?
Minnesota is demanding unlimited flows of foreigners and fraud. And if the federal government tries to stop it, they’ll be met with violence. This is a Minnesota insurgency. They’re conducting guerrilla warfare against federal agents, tailing them, sabotaging them, ramming them, assaulting them, stealing weapons and harboring foreign fugitives and fraudsters. And the most grotesque thing about it is that they’re putting women onto the front lines.
Now, if the federal government doesn’t assert authority over this rebellion, the republic is going to fracture. Other sanctuary states will use the same playbook. Forcing federal immigration agents out of their states and harboring migrants for cheap labor, votes, and welfare money. A coalition of sanctuary city states, impenetrable by the federal government, will bring down the country. And that’s what they want.
Great Job Media Matters for America & the Team @ Media Matters for America Source link for sharing this story.
