UTILITIES: Duke Energy’s efforts to expand a popular energy-efficiency program across North Carolina attract stiff opposition from gas distributors — including one of its own subsidiaries — that say the program will cost them customers. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
• An oil and gas supplier sues San Antonio’s municipal utility over its failure to pay nearly $100 million for natural gas during February’s winter storm. (Reuters)
• The head of Entergy New Orleans steps down and will be replaced by a Texas official as the utility faces criticism over its handling of power outages on Mardi Gras. (NOLA.com)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority has hardened infrastructure around its essential operations after a tornado cut power to more than 850,000 residents a decade ago. (WAAY)
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NUCLEAR:
• Georgia Power begins the final phase of testing for the first of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle after years of unexpected delays and costs. (Atlanta Business Chronicle)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority completes a major turbine upgrade at its oldest and biggest nuclear facility, Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
COAL: West Virginia regulators will fine a Kentucky coal company $125,000 for water pollution violations at 15 different sites in five counties from 2018 through 2020. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
SOLAR:
• A longtime Tampa congressperson says a new bill to expand community solar projects and energy accessibility will create 2 million jobs. (Florida Daily)
• Mississippi regulators approve a 1.3 MW solar facility with battery storage for Mississippi Power to use as a demonstration and research project. (Northside Sun)
OIL & GAS:
• The CEO of Texas’ largest power producer cites natural gas as the primary cause of a projected $1.6 billion financial hit from February’s winter storm. (E&E News, subscription)
• Nine oil refineries and chemical companies agree to pay the federal government $5.5 million for improper disposal of waste that has contaminated much of Louisiana’s Calcasieu River estuary. (NOLA.com)
• Three groups request Virginia regulators revisit a proposed natural gas plant’s air permit because they say it shares the same “defects” of a similar permit struck down by a federal court last year. (Virginia Mercury)
• Two Arkansas residents sue 29 companies that do business at a sand mining and fracking business for heavy traffic and allegedly contaminating drinking water. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Students at Kentucky’s Murray State University showcase the first-ever electric vehicle to be designed and constructed by its college students. (Murray Ledger & Times)
POLITICS:
• Southeastern energy powerhouses Florida and Texas, as well as North Carolina, gain congressional seats after the 2020 U.S. Census. (E&E News, subscription; CNBC)
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott draws criticism for tweeting a distortion of President Joe Biden’s climate plan falsely suggesting it would require Americans to cut nearly all red meat from their diets. (San Antonio Express News)
COMMENTARY:
• Last week’s union endorsement of clean-energy jobs in return for preservation of coal production is complicated by the green hydrogen industry’s potential to close off coal employment pathways that previously seemed safe, writes a columnist. (Triple Pundit)
• The challenge of reducing carbon emissions goes hand in hand with revitalizing coal- and gas-dependent places like West Virginia that will be further devastated by an anti-carbon future, writes a columnist. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)