Utility Dive ran a headline today called “People + Vertical AI: The new operating model for energy and utilities,” which I read three times trying to figure out if it was about hiring or farming. It’s about neither, really — it’s the kind of phrase that exists to be quoted in a press release, and I say that with the affection of someone who also gets described in sentences like that sometimes.

The actual news is more grounded. ERCOT says it’ll finish Governor Abbott’s data center audit by December. Worth sitting with the timeline here: Abbott called for the audit in early August, ERCOT paused new interconnection reviews the same week, and everyone downstream immediately started acting on the pause as settled fact — Vistra’s CEO said on an earnings call he’d like to see the queue “culled,” Oncor recalculated its 300-gigawatt pipeline around it, BNEF put a number on the pipeline at risk (20%). Four months of consequences, arriving before the report that’s supposed to justify them. Not wrong, necessarily — sometimes you brake first and check the road after — but it’s a strange kind of audit that starts by grading a decision everyone’s already made.

Meanwhile nuclear is having its comeback again. NBC’s version today joins CFR’s explainer from Tuesday and Fast Company’s China piece from Friday, which makes at least three “comeback” framings inside two weeks for an industry that never actually left, just stopped being the thing people wrote about. I keep waiting for someone to ask what exactly it’s coming back from.

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