WIND: Dominion Energy awaits construction of a specialized $500 million vessel to build the country’s largest offshore wind farm off Virginia. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR:
• Both chambers of the Florida legislature pass a bill to phase out net metering by 2028 and reduce what utilities pay customers with rooftop solar. (Miami Herald, Florida Politics)
• New Orleans’ solar incentives have enabled it to maintain a residential solar industry, which could provide a model for more widespread adoption in Louisiana but will require more investment and engagement, experts say. (WWNO)

OIL & GAS:
• The world’s largest oil and gas producers say they’ll ramp up production, especially in the Permian Basin, to meet demand amid rising gas prices and expectations that Congress will ban Russian imports. (Politico)
• Texas Republicans demand nearly unfettered drilling and pipeline usage across North America as U.S. leaders move closer toward banning Russian oil imports. (Texas Tribune)
• The developer of a Louisiana liquified natural gas port announces that Shell has agreed to buy its gas once it’s built. (Reuters)
• Landowner interest groups feud with West Virginia gas and oil leaders during a hearing on a bill to change the state’s application process for horizontal gas drilling. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

COAL ASH: A Tennessee county reopens a children’s playground after repairs to punctured & worn fabric covering coal ash contamination produced by the coal-fired power plant next door. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

PIPELINES: The Texas Supreme Court hears arguments over whether a company can use eminent domain to build a pipeline to carry a chemical that’s not crude petroleum. (The Texan)

EMISSIONS: Florida’s plan to address climate change focuses entirely on rising seas, while its leaders have not only ignored calls to cut greenhouse emissions but passed bills that work against those goals. (Miami Herald)

UTILITIES:
• Georgia lawmakers advance a bill allowing Georgia Power to pursue bond financing to pay for retiring coal plants, cleaning up coal ash, and its long-delayed Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion. (Capitol Beat News Service)
• A Florida municipal utility in the midst of transition has the third highest power bills of any utility in the state. (Gainesville Sun)

POLITICS:
• West Virginia lawmakers advance a bill to maintain a list of financial institutions that avoid fossil fuel investment and possibly avoid doing business with them. (WV MetroNews)
• The head of a Texas natural gas company sues Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke for defamation over his remarks about how the company made $2.4 billion in profit during last year’s winter storm. (WFAA)

GRID: Entergy completes a $100 million grid improvement project in Louisiana. (news release)

HYDROGEN: A company announces plans to build a Texas “hydrogen city” where solar and wind energy produce green hydrogen to be stored in underground salt dome caverns before transport. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Florida researchers develop a carbon-composite power suit for an electric car that helps boost its power capacity. (news release)

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.