EMISSIONS: A company building a supersonic jet factory in North Carolina says its planes will emit net-zero carbon emissions. Sustainable aviation experts say the claim merits skepticism but could become true someday. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• West Virginia’s attorney general prepares for oral arguments before the Supreme Court next week in its challenge to the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. (WV Metro News)
• Arkansas regulators move to repeal an emissions loophole that federal officials identified as potentially harmful to residents living near industrial facilities. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

PIPELINES:
• NextEra tells investors the Mountain Valley Pipeline has a “very low probability” of being completed and slashes the value of assets held by its unit that invested in the project. (Reuters; Pittsburgh Business Journal, subscription)
• U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin criticizes federal regulators for revamping their pipeline consideration process to include more attention to landowner rights, environmental impacts and climate change. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

COAL: Coal industry leaders told West Virginia lawmakers they don’t need or want a bill passed to create a state-funded insurance company to help mine operators finance reclamation, documents show. (Mountain State Spotlight)

GRID:
• A new study shows switching to clean and renewable energy can help avoid electrical blackouts, perhaps even during intense weather events such as last year’s winter storm that nearly took down the Texas grid. (Washington Post)
• Another new report argues that rooftop solar could have supplied more than enough power to meet the Texas grid’s shortfall for most of last year’s winter storm. (Spectrum News)
• A former Texas energy regulator argues the state can connect its standalone electrical grid to the rest of the country without losing autonomy and without action from the state legislature. (Texas Tribune)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Texas eyes $5 billion in the federal infrastructure package to build electric vehicle chargers as it seeks to close gaps in its network. (WFAA)
• A Mississippi city board votes to sign onto a Tennessee Valley Authority program that will result in the addition of two fast charging stations. (Daily Mississippian)

OIL & GAS:
• West Virginia stands to gain big from the federal infrastructure law’s funding for abandoned mine reclamation, orphan oil and gas well cleanup and developing a hydrogen hub, but much is contingent on how state leaders respond. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• West Virginia lawmakers advance legislation to eliminate a requirement for a minimum number of royalty owners to own an oil or natural gas mineral tract for it to be developed. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

INNOVATION: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visits South Carolina to announce $3 million in funding for engineers and scientists to research technology to decarbonize power production. (Times and Democrat)

POLITICS: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy blocks President Biden’s nominees to the EPA from frustration with the agency’s delays in approving carbon capture projects in Louisiana. (E&E News)

COMMENTARY: Texas conservatives hoping to score political points by blaming wind energy for the grid’s near-failure last year are not just wrong but may undercut the state’s sweeping success so far in building out the industry, writes an editorial board. (Dallas Morning News)

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.