BIOMASS: Environmental advocates call for stricter guidelines on wood pellet production in the Southeast U.S. destined for power plants in Europe. (The Washington Post)
CLIMATE:
• Hoping to shape climate policies, six oil giants want a price on carbon. (National Journal)
• Clean energy advocate NextGen Climate tries to challenge GOP presidential candidates during an economic forum at Disney World today. (Saint Peters Blog, Orlando Sentinel)
COAL:
• Coal plant closures May 31 by American Electric Power included three in West Virginia, two in Virginia, one in Kentucky. (Platts)
• Each of these seven regulations is making coal-fired power plants increasingly uneconomic to operate. (InsideClimate News)
• Jeb Bush was slated to speak Monday to coal executives at a private industry retreat in Bristol, Virginia. (The Guardian)
WASTE-TO-ENERGY: North Carolina regulators certified a waste-to-energy plant in Charlotte as a renewable-energy producer. (Charlotte Business Journal)
SOLAR: A Southern Co. unit acquires the 30-megawatt PawPaw Solar Facility, boosting its solar holdings to 385 megawatts in Georgia. (Atlanta Business Chronicle)
UTILITIES:
• A Duke Energy shareholder alleges in a lawsuit it withheld key information about the Dan River coal ash spill. (Charlotte Observer)
• Southern Co. is among utilities charging the central U.S. grid operator is overcharging them for power moved across Entergy’s grid. (EnergyWire)
OIL & GAS: A federal judge drops one of two charges against former BP executive David Rainey over the 2010 Gulf oil spill. (The Advocate, Louisiana)
COAL ASH: North Carolina is probing whether a Duke Energy contractor failed to acquire a permit for coal ash remediation work. (Charlotte Business Journal)
COMMENTARY: Are wind and solar just a fad, as Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander asserts? (Johnson City Press)