OIL & GAS: Environmentalists and energy experts criticize the Tennessee Valley Authority for its plans to build eight natural gas-fired power plants, doubling down on fossil fuels despite running nuclear and hydroelectric plants through most of its history . (Washington Post)

ALSO: 

SOLAR: 

STORAGE: A Texas startup attracts $68 million from investors for a product that pairs off-the-shelf battery technology and grid monitoring technology and provides more power to customers seeing higher grid stress. (Fort Worth Report)

EFFICIENCY: Dominion Energy provides free energy efficiency upgrades to more than 1,800 public housing residents in Charleston, South Carolina. (Post and Courier, WCSC) 

CLEAN ENERGY: Texas has passed California to become the state with the most solar capacity from large utility-scale projects, and is also the top state for wind energy and second for battery storage. (Axios)

COAL: A Virginia regulator orders Appalachian Power to continue studying whether retiring two money-losing coal-fired power plants in West Virginia would save Virginia customers money. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

GRID: 

HYDROPOWER: Appalachian Power will receive $5 million in federal funding to upgrade two units on a 75 MW hydroelectric facility in Virginia. (Cardinal News)

UTILITIES: Appalachian Power is filing for rate hikes even as its seven highest-paid leaders all received raises since 2021, prompting criticism from clean energy advocates. (Roanoke Times)

POLITICS: Residents in West Virginia and elsewhere grow frustrated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promises to aid their fight against mountaintop removal mining and other polluting projects in places he visited but never returned. (Washington Post)

COMMENTARY:

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

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.