With a new U.S. presidential administration, the energy industry is experiencing shifts in policy and regulation. Key challenges include accommodating demand growth, making needed capital investment, and ensuring affordable rates and reliability. Demand growth, especially from data centers, and grid modernization have spurred increasing capital expenditures. Data center demand is also supporting development of new nuclear as a carbon-free baseload capacity option. Utility costs from weather-related events have reinforced concerns about affordability. In several states, utilities can securitize storm-related costs, mitigating financial burdens, at least in the short term. Fossil power plant retirements are expected to continue in 2025 despite support of the new administration, although some utilities are deferring shutdowns to accommodate load growth and address grid reliability needs. Finally, bulk power reliability remains a prominent concern. Ongoing industry efforts have led to incremental progress, but system operators continue to warn of vulnerabilities in extreme weather events.