CLEAN ENERGY: A federal green bank aims to channel $500 million to more than 75 community financial institutions to fund solar arrays, renewable energy apprenticeships, electrified public transit, and more in rural areas, with priority for projects in Appalachia. (Grist)

OIL & GAS: Experts say the lack of communication to neighboring residents about a fire at a large Louisiana refinery is an example of the embedded culture of secrecy around chemical plants and refineries in “Cancer Alley.” (Guardian)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

PIPELINES: A panel of federal judges seems skeptical of a lawsuit by environmental groups to reverse regulators’ 2023 approval of two pipelines to supply a liquified natural gas terminal in Louisiana. (Courthouse News Service)

STORAGE: Texas ranks just behind California for development of grid-scale battery systems, with 4,832 MW deployed in total. (Reuters)

GRID: 

HYDROGEN: A West Virginia economic development board approves a forgivable $10 million loan for a hydrogen project. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

UTILITIES: 

CLIMATE: 

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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.