OVERSIGHT: Documents show that while Tennessee Valley Authority officials denied involvement with an industry group that challenged pollution rules, one of its key environmental managers was kept in the loop about litigation and signed off on billing statements that mentioned legal fees. (E&E News)

SOLAR: Dominion Energy partners with The Nature Conservancy to announce plans for a 50 MW solar farm on a former surface mine in southwestern Virginia. (Associated Press)

GRID:
• Hurricane Nicholas makes landfall in Texas as more than 110,000 customers in Louisiana still lack power after Hurricane Ida. (Newsweek, S&P Global)
• Power is restored bit by bit from Hurricane Ida as line workers hit the ground and, in one case, notice a neighborhood sign that read, “Linemen We Need Power.” (Hammond Daily Star)
• New Orleans City Council looks to push Entergy to pay for electrical grid repairs from damages by Hurricane Ida rather than recovering the cost from ratepayers. (NOLA.com)

COAL:
• Hedge fund investors brought environmental and cultural changes to the coal industry that left long-term scars in Appalachia, writes a journalist in a new book. (Guardian)
• The U.S. Justice Department says West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family-owned companies failed to submit a stream restoration plan after allegedly discharging pollutants in a creek. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators approve plans for a company to store nuclear waste in west Texas despite the objections from the local community, state, and oil companies. (Bloomberg)

PIPELINES: A county near Memphis, Tennessee, passes an ordinance to prevent pipelines from being built within 1,500 feet of most residential areas, with the Memphis city council set to vote on a similar proposal next week. (Tennessee Lookout) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Kentucky electric vehicle parts manufacturers ramp up while residents near a state-owned 1,500-acre economic development site swap rumors that it will become a car plant or electric vehicle battery plant. (WKU, WLKY)

HYDRO: The owner of a private dam in Virginia wins mostly praise for plans to modernize the facility by converting a mill into a home and retrofitting the dam to allow fish passage. (Chesapeake Bay Journal)

CARBON CAPTURE: Louisville Gas and Electric partners with the University of Kentucky to study how to economically capture carbon dioxide from natural gas power plants. (WFPL)

STORAGE: San Antonio’s municipal utility partners with OCI Solar Power and Hyundai to study whether recycled electric vehicle batteries can be successfully reused to store power. (San Antonio Report)

COMMENTARY:
• The petrochemical industry that dots Louisiana and Texas’ coasts has accelerated climate change and ruined the Gulf Coast’s environment, but residents elsewhere can cut their own emissions through minor lifestyle changes, writes a climate activist. (Seacoastonline.com)
• An Alabama state lawmaker touts the state’s readiness for a manufacturing shift toward electric vehicles. (Montgomery Advertiser)
• Closed surface mines are perfect sites for utility-scale solar power generation, writes an eastern Tennessee editorial board. (Johnson City Press)

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.