UTILITIES: A report finds NextEra, the Southern Company and Duke Energy are among the largest recipients of federal subsidies. (McClatchy)
ALSO: Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning embraces “the technology of innovation” as the utility looks to its future. (EnergyWire)
SOLAR:
• An “Energy Freedom” bill in North Carolina would allow third-party ownership of solar arrays. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• A conservative-backed solar measure in Florida is opposed by another conservative group, which Tea Party solar advocate Debbie Dooley dismisses as engaging in “a campaign of lies and deceptions.” (Palm Beach Post, SaintPetersBlog)
• A utility begins construction on what will become Virginia’s largest solar array. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Georgia regulators give final approval to a utility’s plan to add 525 megawatts of solar in the coming years. (Atlanta Business Chronicle)
CLIMATE: A Florida county considers carbon credits from conservation lands as a potential income source. (Tampa Tribune)
EPA: Regulators from Florida and North Carolina go before Congress to criticize the Clean Power Plan. (McClatchy)
COAL:
• “There is no quick fix” to economic decline in Appalachian coal country. (Greenwire)
• A truck driver dies in an incident at a West Virginia mine, the second worker fatality in two days. (Bristol Herald Courier)
• A Louisiana parish grapples with a stockpile of 18 million pounds of explosives — a legacy of a declining coal mining industry — left behind by a bankrupt contractor. (New York Times)
OIL AND GAS:
• Fracking regulations advance in the Florida House after heated debate. (SaintPetersBlog)
• A judge dismisses a class-action lawsuit over the 2013 Mayflower pipeline spill. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A report finds repealing the U.S. crude oil export ban could add billions to the economy. (Houston Business Journal)
• A Louisiana oil hub remains busy despite the drilling slowdown. (Houma Courier)
• Developers of a proposed natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to North Carolina get approval to survey through the George Washington National Forest. (Associated Press)
• A Louisiana parish may join a lawsuit to stop a wastewater injection well. (Houma Courier)
COMMENTARY: North Carolina is on track to meet federal carbon goals, whether state officials like it or not. (NRDC Switchboard)