UTILITIES: More than two dozen cities, counties and corporations submit comments to North Carolina regulators that critique Duke Energy’s 15-year power generation plan as including too few renewables and too many new gas plants at ratepayers’ expense. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• Rural North Carolina electric cooperatives created during the 1930s provide flexibility that could help bring electric cars and other vanguards of the clean energy revolution. (NPR Short Wave)

***SPONSORED LINK: Receive continuing education credits, learn about new energy solutions and best practices, and connect with other energy industry professionals at the 2021 State Energy (Virtual) Conference of North Carolina, April 19-22. Learn more and register at www.NCenergyconference.com. *** 

COAL ASH: An investigation reveals how Georgia Power convinced regulators to approve pushing coal-ash clean-up costs onto ratepayers while also pursuing a plan that would perpetually risk contaminating drinking water in neighboring communities.  (ProPublica/Georgia Health News)

PIPELINES: Amid a running debate over the proposed Byhalia Connection pipeline, an investigation finds that southwest Memphis neighborhoods suffer the effects of toxic oil emissions in a monitoring blindspot that often get overlooked until they affect families. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

OIL & GAS:
• Virginia Natural Gas sues the developer of a proposed natural gas plant for allegedly breaking terms of an agreement to build the troubled plant and for failing to reimburse it for more than $2 million in costs. (Virginia Mercury)
• A 100-unit affordable housing complex in Austin is still without gas service after Texas’ deep freeze last month caused the ground to shift and created multiple leaks that still haven’t been resolved. (Austin American-Statesman)

NUCLEAR: Georgia Power says that the first of two new nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle likely will be delayed from its planned November in-service date, at the cost of $25 million per month. (Capitol Beat News Service/Albany Herald)

COAL: West Virginia’s coal association calls a plan to alter the state’s severance tax to a tiered structure “an immediate tax increase,” bringing into question the political viability of the governor’s related proposal to eliminate the state income tax. (State Journal)

SOLAR:
• A Florida company will build a 150 MW solar and 50 MW battery storage facility in Mississippi to power two Facebook data centers. (Associated Press)
• A company seeks tax breaks to build a 98 MW solar farm in Louisiana as state utilities look to buy more renewable energy. (The Advocate)

CLIMATE: Florida lawmakers consider giving local governments more money to prepare infrastructure for climate change while also advancing measures to restrict their abilities to regulate carbon-based fuels or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (E&E News, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: BMW says it will convert its South Carolina manufacturing facilities to make all electric vehicles, per a company commitment. (Post and Courier, subscription)

OVERSIGHT: Republican attorneys general from the Southeast and other regions file lawsuits in an attempt to counter President Joe Biden’s climate and energy initiatives, among other proposals. (Politico)

***SPONSORED LINK: Check out the Squeaky Clean Energy Podcast by NCSEA! Get a fresh take on North Carolina’s clean energy landscape with biweekly episodes. Available wherever you get your podcast or at: www.energync.org/podcast.***

GRID: The Texas Supreme Court narrowly rules that it doesn’t have jurisdiction to decide whether the state’s power grid operator can be sued in the wake of last month’s blackouts. (Dallas Morning News)

COMMENTARY: Environmental groups call on the Tennessee Valley Authority to shift from plans to build more gas-fired power plants they say are costly and run counter to a national move toward carbon-free power sources. (Southern Environmental Law Center)

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.