UTILITIES:
• Canadian energy services company Emera has agreed to acquire Tampa-based Teco Energy for about $6.4 billion. (Saint Peters Blog)
• Cleaner fuels for power generation and higher-earning residential and small business ratepayers make Teco Energy attractive to Emera. (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
• Florida regulators have allowed Tampa Electric to end a 35-year-old demand response program aimed at large energy-using devices such as air conditioners and water heaters. (Utility Dive)

SOLAR:
• Customers of the Ozarks Electric co-op in Fayetteville, Arkansas can subscribe to the first utility-scale, member-owned solar power generation facility in Arkansas. (Arkansas Business)
• The University of Virginia is partnering with Dominion Virginia Power to install solar panels on the roofs of two campus buildings. (The Cavalier Daily, Charlottesville)

CLIMATE: Sea-level rise is proving a better way to communicate about climate change in Florida. (Saint Peters Blog)

EFFICIENCY: A property assessed clean energy (PACE) program is set to launch in an Arkansas county. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

SUSTAINABILITY: Atlanta says it will lease 15 battery-electric vehicles and 35 plug-in hybrid vehicles. (Auto Blog)

COAL ASH:
• Tests of water flows near a Duke Energy coal-fired power plant in Asheville, North Carolina show coal ash constituents reaching the French Broad River. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• Why proposed new EPA coal ash standards expected to be released this month won’t have much impact in North Carolina. (Charlotte Observer)

HYDROPOWER: Today is the deadline for public comment on the environmental review of the TVA’s Boone Dam near Blountville, Tennessee. (Kingsport Times-News)

POWER LINES: Duke Energy officials laid out their case for a new high voltage transmission line from upstate South Carolina to the Asheville, North Carolina area. (Associated Press)

PIPELINES: Citing a conflict of interest by Gov. Rick Scott, opponents of the proposed Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline in north Florida are asking regulators to reject the project. (Miami Herald)

OIL & GAS: A 17-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in Kentucky reopened after it was closed due to a collision that spilled more than 120,000 gallons of oil into the waterway. (Associated Press)

COAL: For the first time in about a century, not a single working miner in Kentucky belongs to a union. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• Florida needs to move beyond, or around, public officials who deny the risks of a changing climate and rising sea levels. (Ocala StarBanner)
• A Virginia congressman contends it’s time to repeal the U.S. ban on oil exports. (The News Virginian)
• A Florida Atlantic University professor says solar panels can help filter Tampa Bay’s cloudy surface water while generating clean electricity. (Palm Beach Post)