SOLAR: Appalachian Power announces completion of a 20 MW solar farm, its first utility-scale solar project in Virginia, with two additional 35 MW solar facilities set to come online soon. (Roanoke Times, Virginia Mercury)

COAL:
• Southwestern Electric Power Company will close a 650 MW coal-fired power plant in Louisiana by the end of the year as part of a settlement with Arkansas regulators and the Sierra Club, contributing to a total of 6,100 MW in coal plants that will be retired or converted in 2021. (The Advocate, Reuters)
• An Alabama judge orders miners to stop picketing outside Warrior Met Coal locations as part of a strike that started in April. (Associated Press)

COAL ASH: The South Carolina Supreme Court upholds state regulators’ partial approval of a rate increase for Duke Energy, allowing it to recover only a fraction of its costs for coal ash remediation at 16 coal-powered plants located mostly in North Carolina. (Post and Courier, Greenville Journal)

WIND: Officials racing to build offshore wind projects like Virginia’s 2,640 MW project with Dominion Energy tout the higher number of onshore jobs that come with them. (Inside Climate News)

PIPELINES: An Oklahoma pipeline discharged roughly 21.8 million cubic feet of natural gas over approximately three hours in what company officials called “a very small leak.” (Bloomberg)

GRID: Construction of a 400-mile power line connecting Texas to the Southeast is in sight but won’t be completed until 2026 at the earliest, illustrating the long delays that challenge high-voltage power line projects needed for a carbon-cutting grid transformation. (E&E News)

CLIMATE: Virginia Beach voters will decide next week whether to approve $568 million in municipal bonds to be used to protect against rising seas and intensifying hurricanes. (Associated Press, Virginia Mercury)

OIL & GAS: Louisiana officials consider a rule to require warning signs and fencing around oil tanks after an explosion killed a teenage girl in February. (WVUE)

UTILITIES:
• An Alabama electric cooperative files a federal complaint after a city council moves to tax the co-op for customers within city limits. (WABM)
• Kentucky utilities warn of higher bills this winter due to the rising cost of natural gas and a rate increase for Louisville Gas & Electric natural gas customers. (Spectrum One)

STORAGE:
• Duke Energy will field test a new flow battery technology touted as a safer, more durable solution for large-scale energy storage at a North Carolina facility. (Daily Energy Insider)
• A Virginia-based energy storage and digital application company owned by Siemens and AES Corp. that operates in 29 markets globally launches an initial public offering. (Virginia Business)

COMMENTARY:
• Texas must demonstrate to customers in Asia, Europe and Mexico that it is a reliable natural gas source that can get them through winter and the transition from coal, write two professors. (Houston Chronicle)
• Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell blames President Joe Biden for rising energy costs and writes that his climate agenda will only raise prices higher. (Kentucky Today)
• A 2020 Virginia energy law that charts a course toward a 100% clean electric grid and is creating thousands of energy efficiency, renewables and storage jobs is effectively on the ballot in next week’s state elections, writes the director of an advanced energy business group. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

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.