SOLAR:
• South Carolina utilities and solar advocates finalize agreement for net metering at full retail value. (Utility Dive)
• Backers of a Florida solar energy ballot initiative say they have enough petition signatures to have the measure reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court. (Saint Peters Blog)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: EPA: The U.S. Supreme Court hears a challenge today to Obama Administration rules aimed at limiting hazardous pollutants emitted from coal and oil-fired utility plants, dozens of which operate throughout the Southeast U.S. (National Public Radio)
WIND: Virginia is the first state in the country to secure a wind energy research lease to build and operate turbines in federal waters. (Daily Press, Virginia Peninsula)
CLIMATE:
• Researchers assert human-caused melting of polar ice is slowing currents in the Atlantic Ocean which could hasten sea-level rise. (Western North Carolina Public Radio)
• Western Kentucky University and the University of Akurreyri in Iceland signed an academic and research agreement creating the North Atlantic Climate Change Collaboration. (Western Kentucky Public Radio)
COAL:
• The Southern Environmental Law Center is suing Dominion Virginia Power alleging coal ash from storage ponds from a retired coal power plant is leaking harmful chemicals into groundwater. (Utility Dive)
• Duke Energy plans to fight the record $25.1 million fine that state environmental regulators imposed recently for coal ash pollution near Wilmington, NC. (Greensboro News & Record)
• A federal appeals court this week gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers one year to reassess the harm to streams in the Black Warrior River basin in Alabama from coal mining. (The Birmingham News)
• Freedom Industries faces a March 30 deadline to file a voluntary plan to clean up coal-scrubbing chemicals which leaked January 2014 into the Elk River contaminating the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship entered another plea of not guilty to federal charges stemming from the mine 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS: Statoil reaches agreement with West Virginia to drill under the Ohio River. (The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register)
EFFICIENCY: A school energy savings program in Daleville City, Alabama has saved $50,000 more than its budgeted amount, allowing the schools to invest that money in classrooms instead of on the light bill. (Dothan Eagle)
POWER TRANSMISSION:
• Two multi-state electricity grid operators serving Arkansas and neighboring states are trying to negotiate a compromise over payments for moving power over their transmission systems. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• The Midcontinent Independent System Operator unveiled a $22 million center to manage power production and transmission in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (The Meridian Star, Mississippi)
OFFSHORE DRILLING: More than 100 area residents voiced their opposition to oil and gas drilling off Georgia’s coast asserting the environmental and health risks far outweigh the economic benefits. (Savannah Morning News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Not long before he became governor of Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe received special treatment on behalf of his electric-car company. (The Washington Post)
COMMENTARY:
• Laughing at talk of climate-safe “atmospheric re-employment” in Tallahassee (Orlando Weekly)
• A new law in Kentucky creating Energy Project Assessment Districts marks a rare bipartisan achievement. (Lexington Herald-Leader)