COAL: With its completion set for Oct. 31, the Department of Energy affirms its support for Southern Company’s Kemper “clean coal” power plant in Mississippi. (AMI Newswire)
COAL ASH:
• Duke Energy and North Carolina’s environmental agency are negotiating a possible settlement of groundwater pollution from ash at a power plant in Wilmington. (Associated Press)
• Duke Energy hoped to avoid a “media frenzy” by contesting the release of a deposition by North Carolina’s toxicologist, court filings show. (Salisbury Post)
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SOLAR:
• A bulk-purchasing solar co-op in central Florida aims to sign up 500 homeowners by the end of November. (News 13)
• A Q&A addresses Florida’s solar Amendment 4 on the Aug. 30 primary ballot. (The Ledger)
UTILITIES: Florida Power & Light’s CEO defends the company’s request for a $1.3 billion rate hike at the start of a two-week hearing. (POLITICO Florida)
NUCLEAR: With a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy, a Virginia Tech professor seeks a way to monitor contents of containers that store radioactive spent fuel rods. (Augusta Free Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Plug-in NC and the Piedmont Triad Regional Council are hosting an EV workshop on creating workplace charging programs this Thursday in Kernersville, North Carolina. (Advanced Energy)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: Two environmental groups in Virginia appeal to Gov. Terry McAuliffe to file a robust compliance plan as soon as the Clean Power Plan clears its legal challenge at the Supreme Court. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
NATURAL GAS: Duke Energy hopes that fueling two power plants with natural gas in addition to coal will lower the cost of acquiring coal via the only available rail line. (Charlotte Business Journal)
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EFFICIENCY: A Christian project in Kentucky receives about $58,000 from Kentucky Power for completing multiple energy-saving projects. (The Floyd County Times)
COMMENTARY:
• Bureaucrats bicker while well owners worry in North Carolina. (WRAL)
• Dominion Virginia Power’s plans for closing coal ash ponds are deeply flawed. (The Virginian-Pilot)
• How Southern Company tried to sell the “clean coal” technology it’s developing in Mississippi to the world. (Geoengineering Monitor / Greenpeace Energy Desk)
• Here’s the downside of building too many natural gas-fired power plants in Virginia. (Staunton News Leader)