COAL: Robert Murray, founder and former president of America’s largest privately held coal company, dies just days after his retirement and weeks after filing for federal black-lung benefits. (Associated Press, West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

ALSO: High schoolers from Kentucky, West Virginia and Wyoming discuss prospects for life after coal. (Ohio Valley ReSource)

PIPELINES: Environmentalists hope that a combination of legal obstacles and production declines among natural gas companies will result in the demise of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

UTILITIES: Frontier Energy purchases a coal-fired AEP power plant slated for closure and will instead convert it to natural gas. (KFDX)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Northern Virginia county partners with Dominion Energy and state agencies to launch passenger service on an autonomous electric shuttle. (Green Car Congress)

SOLAR: Residents in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley gather for a solar-barn raising to install 357 solar panels on a building at Eastern Mennonite School. (Daily News-Record)

WIND: An economic impact study suggests that offshore wind development in Virginia could create 5,200 jobs for each gigawatt of electricity that’s installed. (Virginian-Pilot) 

STORAGE: A North Carolina electric cooperative eyes battery storage and other technology as it aims to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and to net-zero by 2050. (Anson Record)

OIL & GAS:
• BP evacuates workers from four offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Zeta. (Reuters)
• Joe Biden’s debate comment about transitioning from oil has become a focal point for Republicans in oil-producing states, especially battleground Texas. (Associated Press, Houston Chronicle)

NUCLEAR: Georgia Power’s construction of two new units at Plant Vogtle emerge as an issue in two statewide elections for the state Public Service Commision. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• States that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 comprise seven of the top 10 for solar and wind generation as a percentage of their electricity consumption, according to a report released last week by Environment America. (Forbes)
• A newspaper editorial board argues that President Trump’s actions and words give lie to his executive order promising to protect Florida from offshore drilling for at least a decade. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

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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.