UTILITIES: Duke Energy fights a hedge fund that wants to split the utility into three regional companies, with one operating in Florida, one in the Carolinas and one in the Midwest, to generate as much as $15 billion in value for investors. (Charlotte Observer, Florida Politics)

PIPELINES:
• Fuel outages and a six-year high in gas prices persist across North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and other parts of the Southeast even as the Colonial Pipeline resumes operations. (ABC News, WTVD, Washington Post)
• The head of a U.S. Senate committee prepares a hearing on the Colonial Pipeline hack after long warning about the threats of cyberattacks. (E&E News, subscription)
• Congressional Republicans falsely link the cyberattack-related shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline to President Joe Biden’s executive order to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. (PolitiFact)

OIL & GAS:
• As the Colonial Pipeline resumes operations, analysts say the lingering impact of last week’s shutdown and emerging concerns about inflation could affect the inventory and price of crude oil. (Houston Chronicle)
• The federal government renews its agreement to fund Texas A&M University’s Ocean Energy Safety Institute to advise regulators on offshore oil and gas safety. (E&E News, subscription)

GRID:
• A series of bills to winterize and stabilize Texas’ power infrastructure still languish in committee as the state legislative session nears its end. (KCEN)
• Austin Energy responds to spring outages caused by natural phenomena, routine maintenance or broken equipment, and prepares for the energy-intensive summer season. (KXAN)
• Tennessee residents complain about round-the-clock noise coming from a bitcoin mining center next to a Brightridge power substation. (WJHL)

SOLAR:
• Kentucky regulators set a price for electricity generated by rooftop solar customers that’s less than what Kentucky Power customers received previously, but more than the utility wanted to pay. (WFPL)
• A solar developer secures a “payment in lieu of taxes” incentive deal to build a solar farm in Texas. (KCEN)
• A northwest Florida city partners with a developer and a Florida Power & Light subsidiary to place two solar trees. (Northwest Florida Daily News)
• Texas’ status as the country’s second largest producer of solar energy stems in part from property owners with rooftop arrays. (KTVT/KTXA)
• A Florida college student wins an OZY Genius Award for her design of a mobile solar carport with an integrated electric vehicle charger. (Patch)
• South Carolina lawmakers pass a bill to exempt leased and third party-owned residential solar systems from property taxes. (Solar Power World)

COAL: Environmental groups sue the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation, saying it needs to press West Virginia to ensure coal companies pay the full costs of mine reclamation. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority fights efforts by a developer to buy and complete a half-finished nuclear power plant in Alabama, as both sides say the other breached a contract. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, WHNT)

POLITICS: West Virginia’s two U.S. senators both grew up in politically prominent families and now play central roles as President Biden courts Congress with his infrastructure agenda. (Associated Press)

EFFICIENCY: The Tennessee Valley Authority will spend $7.3 million across seven states to train public school personnel how to reduce energy use and save money. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• The cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline will recur elsewhere with potentially more severe consequences unless policymakers boost the energy system’s resilience in the face of cyberattack and severe weather risks. (Foreign Policy)
• President Biden’s infrastructure and clean-energy agendas include a surprising amount of funding pegged to projects that would  help build a new economy in coal country, writes an editorial board. (Roanoke Times)
• As federal legislation targets initiatives in coal-producing areas like West Virginia, states need to organize and plan to rebuild infrastructure and create good-paying jobs in vulnerable communities, write two state lawmakers. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

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Mason Adams

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.