Southeast Energy News

Tellurian cuts bait on Texas-spanning Permian pipeline

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PIPELINES: A pandemic-related drop in natural gas prices prompts a developer to withdraw plans for a 625-mile pipeline that would have spanned Texas into Louisiana. (Reuters)

ALSO:
• A federal appeals court says a federal agency’s approval for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross waterways was likely illegal, citing West Virginia regulators’ flip-flopping on their own state rules. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s fate remains in question as its cost escalates amid legal and regulatory delays. (WVTF)

***SPONSORED LINK: Whether you’re aware of it or not, clean energy is working for you right now.  Support NCSEA’s efforts to continue building a clean energy future that works for all North Carolinians  by giving a tax-deductible donation before December 31.

Southeast Energy News

Feds may finally take action on toxic dust behind black lung epidemic

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COAL: President-elect Joe Biden’s administration appears likely to implement new occupational safety rules around silica dust, a byproduct of coal mining that’s led to an epidemic of advanced black lung disease. (NPR)

ALSO: Vistra announces plans to close a Texas coal-fired power plant by 2027 because of the prohibitive cost of meeting federal regulations for coal ash disposal and toxic wastewater discharge. (Victoria Advocate)

***SPONSORED LINK: Whether you’re aware of it or not, clean energy is working for you right now.  Support NCSEA’s efforts to continue building a clean energy future that works for all North Carolinians  by giving a tax-deductible donation before December 31. www.energync.org/cleanworks .***

UTILITIES: San Antonio’s city-owned electric utility solicits bids for 900 MW of solar energy and 500 MW of other generation as it looks to replace five natural gas power plant units and a coal-fired unit that it hopes to close by 2030.

Southeast Energy News

Solar’s appetite for land creates a planning conundrum in rural Virginia

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SOLAR: The rapid growth of Virginia’s solar industry, coupled with its substantial need for open space, presents land-use challenges for local governments across the state. (Virginia Mercury)

ALSO:
• Entergy proposes building a solar farm in northern Louisiana’s Morehouse Parish. (KNOE)
• Florida Power & Light prepares a 74.5 MW solar farm in the northeast part of the state to begin operating by the end of 2020. (St. Augustine Record)
• An eastern Tennessee electric cooperative warns of a possible solar panel scam targeting its members on social media.

Southeast Energy News

Massive land buy might shield Georgia Power from coal ash clean-up costs

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COAL ASH: Georgia Power’s acquisition of nearly 1,900 acres around five of its 12 coal ash ponds could shield it from millions of dollars in cleanup costs. (ProPublica)

ALSO:
• Georgia Power reports that cleanup of coal ash at a northwest Georgia plant will take 15 years. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A federal judge rules that a Knoxville newspaper can protect the identities of its sources in an investigation of radioactivity in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash waste. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

***SPONSORED LINK: Whether you’re aware of it or not, clean energy is working for you right now.  Support NCSEA’s efforts to continue building a clean energy future that works for all North Carolinians  by giving a tax-deductible donation before December 31.

Southeast Energy News

Senators say miners deserve more protections from toxic silica dust

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Note to readers: Southeast Energy News is taking a break for the holiday and will be back on Monday, Nov. 30. Thank you for reading! COAL: Six U.S. Senators call on federal regulators to implement new rules protecting miners from silica dust, which has contributed to an ongoing surge in black lung cases. (Ohio Valley ReSource)

ALSO:
• A 20-year-old is killed at a southern West Virginia mine, marking the sixth coal mining death this year.