COAL: Striking Alabama mine workers protest in front of the Manhattan offices of several hedge funds they blame for stalled negotiations on a contract. (AL.com) 

OIL & GAS: The Gulf of Mexico’s offshore oil industry banks on the dubious idea that it is more environmentally responsible and can reduce emissions better than other parts of the industry. (Vox)

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GRID:
• Texas’ grid manager regularly forecasts wind and solar generation but says it doesn’t receive enough information from natural gas and coal plants to make a reliable projection more than a couple of days out. (KCEN)
• A new Louisiana neighborhood builds around a microgrid that can run entirely off a 750 kW solar facility and battery storage. (KTVZ)

WIND: North Carolina strives to get in on offshore wind development, despite a federal focus on other parts of the East Coast. (Carteret County News-Times)

NUCLEAR:
• Duke Energy’s pursuit of a 20-year license renewal for a South Carolina plant portends a broader plan to run its fleet of 11 nuclear reactors until they’re 80 years old. (Bloomberg)
• Federal regulators will conduct an inspection of new units under construction at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle after significant cable installation errors. (S&P Global)

SOLAR:
• A Kentucky natural gas pipeline operator installs a solar array to power its corporate headquarters. (WKYU)
• U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia pushes for a solar panel production tax credit to be added to a congressional infrastructure plan. (Georgia Recorder)
• A Texas school board approves tax breaks for a 200 MW solar facility and 80 MW energy storage facility. (Austin American-Statesman)

PIPELINES:
• A North Carolina gas station operator files a class-action suit against the Colonial Pipeline over the May cyberattack that led to panic buying and fuel shortages. (E&E News, subscription)
• A company seeks federal approval to build a 37-mile pipeline system in Louisiana to plug a supply gap and serve an export terminal it also wants to build. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric vehicle advocates in Georgia push back on an annual fee for EV owners and the 2015 decision to end a $5,000 tax break. (Georgia Recorder)
• Miami goes big on converting its bus fleet to electric, buying dozens of electric buses and installing three 3 MW chargers at depots across the city. (Electrek)

STORAGE: Florida Power & Light announces the installation of the first components at what is planned to be the largest solar-powered battery storage facility in the world. (WWSB)

POLITICS:
• A man raised in a coal-mining family helms a working group to help coal mining and power plant communities to find a new path in a growing clean energy economy. (Ohio Valley ReSource)
• North Carolina Republicans return to the drawing board after months of secret negotiations when the governor and other Democrats respond negatively to a proposed comprehensive energy bill. (Utility Dive)
• Louisiana officials support federal legislation to send half the revenue generated by offshore wind farms back to the state where it was produced. (Houma Today)
• Republican lawmakers in Florida, Georgia and Texas pass laws preempting the ability of city leaders to enforce their own regulations, including the ability to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and shift to renewables. (Politico, WFLA)

COMMENTARY:
• Duke Energy’s attempt to build 9,600 megawatts of new gas-fired generation while slow-walking solar, wind and energy-saving programs will accelerate climate change in the Carolinas, write two conservationists. (Fayetteville Observer)
• West Virginia’s influential U.S. senators both should support legislation that offers $120 billion over 10 years to support coal miners and coal-fired power plant workers affected by the clean-energy transition, writes a climate activist. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Louisiana remains an oil and gas state but has the opportunity to transition as part of an increasingly renewable energy country, or get left behind, writes a columnist. (NOLA.com)

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.