COAL: As bankrupt coal company Blackjewel liquidates its mines and other facilities, the company sues former CEO Jeff Hoops for allegedly using his position to extract millions of dollars for himself and his family. (Bristol Herald Courier, Wall Street Journal)

SOLAR:
• As solar farms proliferate in Virginia, residents in rural Hanover County push back against proposals they say would ruin the landscape and country feel. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Dominion Energy announces it will install solar arrays on 21 schools across Virginia. (WCAV)
• Longroad Energy announces plans for a 150 MW solar farm north of Houston. (Houston Business Journal)
• A planned 100 MW solar farm in Mississippi changes hands. (Associated Press)

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PIPELINES:
• The U.S. Forest Service releases a draft environmental impact statement endorsing the passage of the Mountain Valley Pipeline across 3.5 miles of national forest near the Virginia/West Virginia state line. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Memphis activists rally against a proposed oil pipeline planned to run through Boxtown, a largely Black neighborhood. (MLK50)
• After Virginia regulators reject a proposal to expand natural gas pipelines and infrastructure, Virginia Natural Gas prepares to refile its application. (Chesapeake Bay Journal)

WIND: Planners in a Texas township unanimously approve a proposal to build up to 21 wind turbines. (Laredo Morning Times)

UTILITIES:
• After its previous leader unsuccessfully tried finding a private buyer, the new CEO of Jacksonville, Florida’s city-owned electric utility affirms his support for public ownership. (Florida Times-Union)
• A West Virginia county considers tax incentives for Longview Power on a 1,200 MW combined cycle gas turbine and a 70 MW solar facility. (WV MetroNews)
• Big Rivers Electric Corp. will move its headquarters from Henderson, Kentucky, to the next county over after years of dispute with Henderson Municipal Power & Light, in large part over an aging, coal-fired power plant. (The Gleaner)
• Entergy Texas proposes to lease gas-powered backup generators to commercial and industrial customers that would also be used by the utility during times of high demand. (Beaumont Enterprise)

COAL ASH: The North Carolina Supreme Court orders regulators to reconsider whether Duke Energy should bear coal-ash cleanup costs that were charged to customers in rates approved in 2018. (Charlotte Business Journal)

OIL & GAS:
• Shell closes its Convent oil refinery on the Mississippi River, ending what had been the primary economic driver in Louisiana’s St. James Parish since the 1960s. (New Orleans Advocate)
• Luminant announces it will close a 235 MW natural gas-fired power plant in Trinidad, Texas, in the spring of 2021. (Athens Daily Review)
• A Louisiana liquefied natural gas export terminal operator tries to raise $200 million to recapture or offset carbon emissions from a planned terminal. (New Orleans Advocate)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Tesla announces it will open a service center and showroom in Brownsville, Texas, its first in the Rio Grande Valley. (Brownsville Herald)
• An electric pickup truck sparks interest among students at a Jacksonville, Florida, technical school. (Florida Times-Union)

COMMENTARY:
• A planned biogas collaboration with Dominion Energy will perpetuate Smithfield Farms’ damaging practice of collecting hog waste in lagoons, a North Carolina environmental advocate writes. (Charlotte Observer)
• Coal’s future will involve shifting from thermal coal to depend almost entirely on metallurgical, or steel-making, coal, a West Virginia industry representative writes. (Exponent Telegram)
• Assertions by CPS Energy that it can’t shut down a coal-fired power plant because it carries $1 billion in debt don’t hold up, argues a Texas climate justice organizer. (San Antonio Express-News)

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Mason Adams

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.