SOLAR: Virginia regulators prepare rules for a new program allowing state residents to buy solar power via subscription. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• A Florida lawmaker files a bill that would allow schools to contract with third-party solar vendors to operate their own net metering programs. (Spectrum Bay News 9)
• Arkansas regulators approve a 4.8 MW solar array that will provide net metering for a state water utility. (Arkansas Business)
• County commissioners in eastern Texas approve a 10-year tax abatement for the 400 MW Mockingbird Solar Center. (East Texas Radio)

***SPONSORED LINK: Whether you’re aware of it or not, clean energy is working for you right now.  Support NCSEA’s efforts to continue building a clean energy future that works for all North Carolinians  by giving a tax-deductible donation before December 31. www.energync.org/cleanworks .***

TRANSITION:
• President-elect Joe Biden names Brenda Mallory, director of regulatory policy for the Southern Environmental Law Center, to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. (Bloomberg)
• Former EPA officials Michael Regan of North Carolina and Heather McTeer Toney of Mississippi are potential choices to lead the EPA. (NC Policy Watch, Associated Press)

EFFICIENCY: Environmental groups blast a rule proposed by Florida regulators to address how companies set energy-savings goals, saying it uses outdated energy efficiency standards that will cost customers more money. (Florida Phoenix)

PIPELINES: A planned 12-mile Louisville Gas and Electric pipeline would remove 40 acres of forest, cross six waterways and disturb habitat for as many as eight threatened or endangered species. (WFPL)

UTILITIES:
• South Carolina lawmakers consider whether to sell, reform or find a private operator to run the state-owned Santee Cooper utility ahead of their 2021 legislative session. (WSPA)
• Environmental and solar energy groups criticize Dominion Energy proposal to raise rates and fees on solar customers in South Carolina. (PV Magazine)
• Virginia regulators will reconsider their decision to deny Appalachian Power a rate increase. (Roanoke Times)
• East Kentucky Power Cooperative announces a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 70% by 2050 and obtain 15% of its energy from new renewables by 2035. (WTVQ)

OIL & GAS: As other natural gas projects stall amid the pandemic, construction on a new export terminal in Louisiana moves ahead of schedule, with operation expected by 2022. (Bloomberg)

WIND: Dominion Energy begins construction on a 472-foot ship that will install wind turbines off Virginia’s coast beginning in 2023. (Daily Press)

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GRID: Arkansas researchers look into artificial intelligence as a way to protect the electric grid and other infrastructure from cyberattacks. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY:
• The CEO of a North Carolina investment firm calls for elected officials to work together to facilitate economic growth that will come from the transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles. (Energy News Network)
• A vice president at Duke Energy touts the utility’s progress in reducing carbon emissions — 38% since 2005 in the Carolinas— as it moves away from coal toward natural gas and renewables. (Winston-Salem Journal)

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.