PIPELINE: The Colonial Pipeline announces a return to service after last week’s cyberattack, but it will take up to two weeks for gasoline to reach East Coast filling stations. (New York Times, AL.com)

ALSO:
• Panic buying across the Southeast leads to gasoline shortages and price spikes, including in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. (CBS News, WKYU, WRAL, Chattanooga Times Free Press, WRIC)
• Louisiana fuel suppliers say gasoline supply disruptions across the Southeast have largely spared the state’s metro areas — assuming that more people don’t begin to panic buy. (NOLA.com)
• Federal regulators call for more pipeline oversights as analysts say the cyberattack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline reveals historically lax cybersecurity in the oil and gas industry. (S&P Global, Bloomberg)
• Federal lawmakers introduce a swath of cybersecurity and pipeline bills in response to Colonial Pipeline hack. (E&E News, subscription)
• Kentucky lifts restrictions on petroleum transportation to relieve pressure on gasoline supplies affected by the pipeline shutdown. (Associated Press)

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OVERSIGHT:
• Climate advocates hope Virginia regulators’ approval of plans for Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to meet ambitious renewables targets marks a major step toward the clean-energy transition plan state lawmakers adopted in 2020. (Virginia Mercury)
• North Carolina lawmakers consider dueling bills, one making it easier for corporations to get permits for biogas digester systems and one requiring agencies to deny permits for projects posing environmental threats to communities of color. (Fayetteville Observer)
• West Virginia clean-energy advocates lobby their U.S. senators as key votes in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plans. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appoints a regulatory lawyer and daughter of an influential state senator to the state’s utility regulation board. (News-Press)

SOLAR:
• A solar company and landowners sue a Virginia county board for denying a permit after it had previously approved two other solar power facilities. (Winchester Star)
• A renewable energy company builds a 5 MW solar farm whose power will be available to all Arkansas residents through a subscription program. (Times Record)

OIL & GAS: Louisiana lawmakers advance a bill to incentivize oil production from abandoned wells by exempting that production from the state severance tax. (NOLA.com)

COAL: Alabama regulators blame Warrior Met Coal after two creeks run black with dark colored sediment for weeks near a company mine. (AL.com)

NUCLEAR: With Dominion Energy and Duke Energy announcing plans to pursue license renewal for all 11 of their reactors, the nuclear industry sees growth opportunities amid the push to decarbonize emissions. (S&P Global)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Charlotte, North Carolina, launches a public-private bus electrification program that will test 18 vehicles from three different manufacturers beginning next year. (Utility Dive)

GRID: Appalachian Power seeks comments from landowners and residents along the proposed route for a 6.5-mile electric transmission line in southwestern Virginia. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

COMMENTARY:
• The consequences of the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline illustrates both the value of pipelines as well as their vulnerability to hacks, writes a columnist. (Beaumont Enterprise)
• South Carolina lawmakers missed the chance to sell the troubled Santee Cooper utility, which would have relieved state ratepayers from paying billions in debt over its failed attempts to build two nuclear reactors, writes a tax reform advocate. (Forbes)
• Natural gas faces an existential threat from renewables and aggressive decarbonization goals unless the industry shifts to adapt, writes an clean power researcher. (Bloomberg)
• Three of Florida’s largest cities — St. Petersburg, Tampa and Orlando — launch a collaborative coalition to lead the way in climate change initiatives, write their sustainability directors. (Tampa Bay Times)

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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.