EMISSIONS: North Carolina’s ratepayer advocate, Walmart, and other critics of Duke Energy’s initial decarbonization plan relent and endorse a settlement that includes construction of 9 GW of new natural gas plants and more solar. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR: 

  • A Louisiana legislative hearing on solar energy is rife with misinformation and inaccurate statements voiced by officials and lawmakers with deep ties to the state’s powerful oil and gas industry. (Louisiana Illuminator)
  • A Virginia county board asks its attorney to comb through its solar ordinance and propose adjustments based on the solar farms it’s approved over the last seven years. (Gazette-Virginian)
  • A Virginia county board approves a permit for a 5 MW solar farm to be built across from a golf club. (Amherst New Era-Progress)
  • A Texas county expects to receive $7 million from a total of $250 awarded to the state to build solar projects for low-income and disadvantaged communities, but since its board initially voted against the project, it’s unclear what the final dollar amount will be. (Fort Worth Report)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

OVERSIGHT: A federal court blocks the U.S. EPA and Justice Department from using portions of the Civil Rights Act to control whether Louisiana regulators consider the disparate and cumulative impacts of polluting facilities on Black and Brown communities. (Floodlight)

COAL: 

OIL & GAS: A court rejects a federal agency’s 2020 environmental assessment that glossed over the potential harm to endangered and threatened marine species from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (Inside Climate News)

GRID: A heat dome settles over Texas, pushing demand on the state power grid to an unofficial all-time high. (Associated Press)

STORAGE: Texas accounts for nearly a quarter of the 4.2 GW of battery storage installed in the U.S. in the first half of 2024. (PV Magazine)

HYDROGEN: West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio officials gather to celebrate the first $30 million round of funding for a regional hydrogen hub that’s been criticized for a lack of transparency. (Inter-Mountain, WESA) 

HYDROPOWER: Appalachian Power warns boaters and other recreational users to beware of water levels on the New and Roanoke rivers as it considers increasing generation from its hydroelectric facilities to meet power demand. (Chatham Star-Tribune)

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Mason has worked as a journalist since 2001, covering Appalachian communities and the issues that affect them. He compiles the Southeast Energy News digest. Mason previously worked as a wildlife biologist before moving into journalism by freelancing at Coast Weekly in Monterey, California, before taking an internship in 2001 at High Country News. He wrote for the Enterprise Mountaineer in western North Carolina and the Roanoke Times in western Virginia before going freelance in 2012. His work has appeared in Southerly, Daily Yonder, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, WVPB’s Inside Appalachia and elsewhere. Mason was born and raised in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and now lives with his family and a small herd of goats in Floyd County, Virginia.