TRANSPORTATION: Duke Energy launches a subsidiary company tasked with providing planning, financing, acquisition and deployment services for companies, local governments, school districts and transit agencies to convert their fleets to electric vehicles. (Charlotte Business Journal)

ALSO: Environmental advocates push Virginia lawmakers to join the Transportation and Climate Initiative, which requires fuel suppliers to buy offsets for carbon dioxide emissions while providing funding for public transit, electric buses and charging stations. (Energy News Network)

***SPONSORED LINK: North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association is offering a virtual clean energy continuing legal education (CLE) course on Feb. 2, with a specific focus on the Southeast region. Register today! ***

COAL: The Virginia House of Delegates passes a bill phasing out the state’s coal tax credits, which encourage coal production but which generate a net economic loss for the state. (Associated Press)

TRANSITION: Because it has so much heavy industry, Louisiana could become a testing ground for carbon capture and carbon-free hydrogen technologies as it strives to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions statewide by 2050. (E&E News, subscription)

SOLAR:
• A Knoxville power company commits to investing in solar arrays that will generate 502 MW annually, positioning it as a leader in solar power across the Tennessee Valley. (Knoxville News-Sentinel)
• A Louisiana parish approves an 80% reduction in property taxes over 10 years for a solar energy project. (The Advocate)
• A North Carolina Solarize campaign seeks to line up homeowners with design and installation firms to lower prices and persuade more people to purchase home solar systems. (WMYA)
• An Arkansas county considers building a solar farm as it plans energy-efficiency improvements to its sheriff’s office and jail building. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

WIND:
• Wind company Siemens Gamesa considers building a factory in eastern Virginia to provide turbine blades for Dominion Energy’s planned 2.6 GW offshore wind farm. (Riviera)
• A freelance journalist discusses potential uses for fiberglass wind turbine blades after they’ve been used — a problem that’s beginning to pile up in Texas. (Texas Standard)

OIL & GAS: NextDecade drops its plans to build a natural gas export terminal in Galveston Bay because of complications involving federal regulation of part of the site. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

UTILITIES:
• Tampa Electric asks Florida regulators to approve a rate hike to fund a multi-year effort to modernize its Big Bend Power Station, pay for new solar projects and upgrade its power grid. (WTVT)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority seeks public input on its plans to build new combustion turbine units at plants in Alabama and Kentucky. (The Chattanoogan)
• Virginia’s attorney general supports efforts by state lawmakers to strengthen oversight of Dominion Energy. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COMMENTARY:
• The director of West Virginia’s Sierra Club touts the potential for wind and solar expansion to create jobs in the state, including for former coal miners. (WOWK)
• Texas’ prominence in the wind and solar power industries makes its governor’s vehement response to President Biden’s climate agenda “ridiculous,” writes an editor for an electric vehicles and clean power publication. (Electrek)
• Now that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has won reelection, an environmental advocate writes that it’s time to take decisive action to achieve the state’s clean-energy and climate goals. (WRAL)

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.