ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Sunday marks the deadline for President Joe Biden to overrule a trade decision against a Korean electric vehicle battery maker, which says it says will withdraw from three factories in Georgia if the ruling isn’t reversed. (NPR Morning Edition)

UTILITIES: Virginia regulators prepare for a review of Dominion Energy’s earnings amid hot debate over the state’s regulatory framework and its balance between utilities and ratepayers. (Virginia Mercury)

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PIPELINES:
• The Memphis City Council will soon vote on an ordinance to give the Tennessee city oversight over infrastructure affecting drinking water, potentially presenting a way for it to block the Byhalia Connection pipeline (Commercial Appeal)
• North Carolina and Virginia, sites of the canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline and long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline, are among 19 states urging the Supreme Court to affirm New Jersey’s right to block pipeline construction. (E&E News, subscription)

GRID:
• A Republican U.S. Senator and a Democratic congressmember from Texas announce federal legislation to create a half billion-dollar grant for Texas power providers, distributors and suppliers to winterize their infrastructure. (Dallas Morning News)
• A Georgia regulator says a massive Texas-style power failure is unlikely in the state because of its diversity of energy sources and grid makeup. (Rome News-Tribune)

OIL & GAS: Royal Dutch Shell warns investors that the Texas winter storm and ensuing disruption partially offset its recovery from the pandemic and dealt its earnings a roughly $200 million hit. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)

SOLAR:
• Wells Fargo & Co. agrees to purchase power from a 58 MW solar farm under construction in North Carolina that will provide half of the company’s power in the Carolinas and 8% of its global electricity. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• A developer secures a bank loan and financing for a 200 MW solar facility under construction in Texas. (Laredo Morning Times)
• West Virginia lawmakers approve a bill to exempt solar power purchase agreements from the jurisdiction of state regulators, with minor changes left to be adjusted by a conference committee. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

CLIMATE: Florida lawmakers pass legislation to establish a $100 million fund for resiliency projects in communities threatened with rising oceans due to climate change. (Associated Press)

OVERSIGHT: Local Florida leaders and environmental activists push back on pending state legislation that would limit local energy policies, including restrictions on natural gas hookups, solar installation rules and regulation of greenhouse gases. (Bay News 9)

COAL ASH: A Tennessee representative introduces a bill to strengthen federal rules around the storage and disposal of coal ash. (news release)

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators fine Florida Power & Light $150,000 for falsifying maintenance records at a Miami-Dade County nuclear plant. (E&E News, subscription)

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TAXES: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice extends the legislative session by a day in hopes of passing his income tax cut and an array of related tax changes that include raising severance taxes on coal, oil and natural gas. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

COMMENTARY:
• Texas lawmakers shouldn’t exploit February’s storm and outages to undercut a renewable energy industry that has made the state a global leader in clean energy, writes a Texas journalist. (Houston Chronicle)
• Virginians should elect a climate champion governor in November who will stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure and commit to a shift to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, writes a community organizer. (Virginia Mercury)
• Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam should veto the elimination of a coal tax credit after lawmakers rejected his proposal to funnel the savings to a university in the economically struggling region, writes an editorial board. (Roanoke Times)

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.