EQUITY: The U.S. Energy Department’s first-ever deputy director of energy justice says the country needs to examine the structural racism and inequality “baked into the energy system.” (NBC News)

CLIMATE:
• President Joe Biden’s administration is putting together a strategic plan for tackling climate change to be rolled out next month, including new emissions-reduction goals and an office dedicated to displaced fossil fuel workers. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)
• Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announces $75 million in funding for industrial energy efficiency and carbon capture research. (The Hill)
• Cleantech investor Jigar Shah discusses how he plans to run the Energy Department’s $40 billion loan guarantee program. (Greentech Media)
• Federal courts have been instrumental in dismantling Trump-era obstacles to climate policy. (Inside Climate News)
• Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says he’s been talking to climate envoy John Kerry and wants to get the GOP “thinking about a new economy.” (Axios)

UTILITIES:
• An analysis finds that customers who switched to third-party retail providers paid $19 billion more for energy from 2010-2019 than if they’d stayed with their utilities. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)
• The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has connected more than 700 homes to electric service using federal stimulus funds. (Navajo Times)

WIND:
• The Biden administration releases the final environmental impact statement for the Massachusetts Vineyard Wind 800 MW offshore project, putting it on track for final approval later this year. (CommonWealth Magazine)
• As Virginia looks ahead to a growing offshore wind industry, a trade school begins training a homegrown clean energy workforce in a first-of-its-kind wind turbine technician program. (Energy News Network) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• House Democrats propose giving the USPS $6 billion to buy new electric vehicles, reshaping the fleet so 75% of the trucks are zero emission or electric. (Reuters)
• The maker of an electric food truck is rebranding its product as a mobile COVID-19 vaccine unit. (Axios)
• A Nevada bill would require the state’s largest utility to spend $100 million over three years building out electric vehicle infrastructure. (Nevada Independent)

EFFICIENCY: Massachusetts holds a competition to create designs for the state’s iconic triple-decker apartment houses to eliminate emissions and improve energy efficiency. (Energy News Network)

COAL: The South’s February deep freeze likely won’t stop the retirement of coal plants nationwide. (S&P Global)

NUCLEAR: The owner of three nuclear power plants in New Jersey tells state regulators the plants will close if a $300 million ratepayer subsidy is not extended for another three years. (NJ Spotlight)

OIL & GAS:
• Public records show a study cited by Wyoming officials projecting thousands of job losses from a suspension of drilling on public land was developed with help from an oil industry trade group. (Wyoming Public Media)
• Just 7 of the 18 oil refineries shut down in last month’s cold snap are operating normally again as of Monday. (Bloomberg)

PIPELINES:
• A new analysis by a clean energy think tank says changes to the natural gas market since the Mountain Valley Pipeline was announced in 2014 have undercut the economic case for building the long-delayed project. (Gazette-Mail)
• Canada’s natural resources minister says the country is preparing to “invoke whatever measures we need” to keep Line 5 operating in the Straits of Mackinac, which he called “nonnegotiable.” (Detroit Free Press)
• Appeals court justices press federal regulators on the level of scrutiny given to a company’s claims about the need for a new gas pipeline in the St. Louis area.  (S&P Global)

COMMENTARY:
• Oil companies’ International Women’s Day campaigns are a reminder of the unequal effects of climate change the industry perpetuates, a reporting fellow argues. (Grist)
• A tribal attorney says the Line 3 pipeline is a “Keystone clone” that violates Indigenous rights, and urges President Biden to step in and halt its replacement and expansion. (Minnesota Reformer)