COAL: More sustainable economies are possible for coal country, but coal’s long legacy of hope, promises and failure has instilled a political inertia that won’t be easy to overcome. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: Federal stimulus investment could help Appalachia transition from coal, especially after coal company Blackjewel abruptly shuttered and left hundreds of miners out of work last year. (Bloomberg)
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COAL ASH: Duke Energy urges North Carolina regulators to approve rate increases to pay for coal ash cleanup, or else its credit ratings will fall and scare off investors. (WUNC)
OIL & GAS:
• Oil and gas companies are bracing for Tropical Storm Laura, which could hit Gulf Coast oil refineries, petrochemical plants and offshore platforms. (Houston Chronicle)
• The U.S. Coast Guard finds the bodies of two crew members of a dredging boat who were missing after an explosion last week in the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas. (Associated Press)
GRID: A study by a clean energy group says an integrated grid in the Southeast could increase adoption of clean energy and lower costs. (Greentech Media)
SOLAR:
• Local officials in Fredericksburg, Virginia, are launching a program to help residents afford to install rooftop solar. (Free Lance-Star)
• Seven communities in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond in Virginia are installing solar to lower energy bills. (reNews)
• A Virginia utility asks Harrisonburg officials for approval to buy about 9.9 acres of land for solar development. (WHSV)
• A zero-energy housing community in Texas that will have 7,000 homes powered by geothermal and solar chooses a solar installer. (Solar Builder)
COMMENTARY:
• A clean energy advocate says natural gas and coal puts Kentucky communities at a financial risk, and wind and solar are necessary for their future. (State Journal)
• An Environmental Defense Fund director says Texas regulators’ solution to stop natural gas flaring is weak. (Dallas Morning News)
• A clean energy group says that during the heat of the summer and amid the pandemic, low-income people in the Southeast are at risk of their utilities being shut off due to nonpayment or late payments. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)