NUCLEAR: The cost of the TVA’s Watts Bar 2 reactor, set to begin generating power in June, rises $200 million to $4.7 billion. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
BIOENERGY: Construction of a long-awaited wood pellet plant in North Carolina is expected to begin soon and start operations by late 2017. (Richmond Daily Journal)
SOLAR:
• Florida’s Secretary of State affirms a proposed, utility-backed Constitutional amendment has enough signatures for the November ballot. (Naples Daily News)
• About 2,700 panels are now generating power from the roof of Estes Express Lines’ terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. (American Journal of Transportation)
SMART GRIDS: A sister company of Dominion Virginia Power launches a product to stabilize the integration of solar and other distributed power resources. (Bacon’s Rebellion blog)
COAL:
• Lawmakers are working on a $1 billion federal fund to help Appalachian states diversify their economies away from coal. (Associated Press)
• The head of Kentucky’s coal trade group is a key witness before the U.S. Senate against the Obama administration’s proposal to reduce mining’s impacts on streams. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• Murry Energy founder Robert Murray in an interview shares his passion for defending coal while attacking critics and competing fuels. (SNL Energy)
UTILITIES: The owner of a South Carolina power plant says it could supply the electricity Duke Energy wants to generate on its own to serve Asheville, North Carolina. (Charlotte Observer)
ACADEMIA: Researchers at the University of Tennessee are seeking ways to maintain power reliability as more intermittent sources come online. (Tennessee Today)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: A Georgia lawmaker introduces a bill for it to join an interstate compact against the Clean Power Plan. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
OFFSHORE DRILLING: Florida Sen. Bill Nelson says new revenues for states aren’t worth the risks that would come from seismic testing and drilling. (Miami Herald)
FRACKING:
• A bill to override any local bans on fracking advances in the Florida legislature. (InsideClimate News)
•Lawsuits by two companies suing a West Virginia county over its ban on the use or storage of injection fluids are to be heard February 11. (Beckley Register-Herald)
PIPELINES: Federal regulators approve the Sabal Trail Pipeline from Alabama and Georgia into Florida. (Charlotte Business Journal)
SOUTH CAROLINA: Offshore drilling, nuclear power and solar energy are the focus of an energy forum in Charleston on Friday. (Greenville Online)
COMMENTARY:
• What if the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill had occurred off the mid-Atlantic coast? (Climate Progress)
• The Virginia General Assembly should not be able to regulate the state’s compliance with the Clean Power Plan. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
• The Watts Bar 2 project is “the poster child for all that was and is still wrong with the nuclear power industry.” (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)