GRID: An analysis finds 700 people were killed in Texas during and immediately after February’s storm and outages — more than four times the state’s official count of 151. (BuzzFeed News)
ALSO:
• With just a few days left in Texas’ legislative session, Republican leaders in the House and Senate still can’t agree on a plan to require electricity grid suppliers and operators to winterize their facilities. (Houston Chronicle)
• A court rules San Antonio’s city-owned electric utility can proceed with a lawsuit that claims Texas’ grid operator held wholesale electricity prices at the maximum level longer than necessary, costing utilities billions of dollars. (San Antonio Express News)
• Lubbock, Texas, approves a buyout to terminate the contract with its existing electricity supplier, switch to the state grid and open competition among power providers. (KLBK, KCBD)
• Duke Energy builds improvements at a North Carolina substation to reduce flooding and harden the grid. (Reflector)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A Firestone Industrial Products plant in Kentucky announces a $51 million expansion to produce air suspension systems for electric vehicles. (Associated Press)
• A Florida school district prepares to buy 60 new electric school buses once it sets up charging stations. (WLRN)
COAL:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority aims to close both coal-fired units at its Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee no later than 2033, but it remains unclear whether the plant will transition to gas, solar or be retired altogether. (Leaf-Chronicle)
• Federal lawmakers advance two bills to provide reclamation funding for abandoned mine lands in central Appalachia and throughout the country. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
PIPELINES: Land disputes and bipartisan resistance to a Kinder Morgan 360-mile pipeline proposal left Georgia largely reliant on the Colonial Pipeline for fuel, making it more vulnerable to supply interruptions like those caused by this month’s cyberattack. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
POLITICS:
• The Texas state legislature’s debate over power grid reform fuels a surge in lobbyists, a news analysis finds. (WFAA)
• Texas lawmakers approve a bill to revise eminent domain negotiations to require pipeline, utility, and oil and gas companies to provide more transparency as they seek to buy land. (Texas Tribune)
SOLAR: A Florida couple installs the first full Tesla solar-paneled roof in their county. (St. Augustine Record)
OIL AND GAS: Private spaceflight company SpaceX and several Texas energy companies tussle in court over a vacant 24-acre parcel of land with two oil and gas wells. (San Antonio Express News)
CLIMATE: Jacksonville, Florida, looks to Nashville, an economic peer and competitor, for lessons about reducing its carbon footprint and adopting a climate action plan. (WMFE/WJCT and Inside Climate News)
HYDROELECTRIC: The Tennessee Valley Authority nears completion of a seven-year, multi-million dollar repair of a hydroelectric dam in eastern Tennessee. (WJHL)
WIND: Texas lawmakers pass a bill to block a former Chinese military official from building a wind farm in the state. (KABB)
OVERSIGHT: A former Trump administration deputy interior secretary joins Florida Power & Light Co. as vice president for environmental services. (E&E News, subscription)
COMMENTARY: A Georgia regulator calls for a shift to electric vehicles to reduce transportation emissions and boost manufacturing. (CleanTechnica)