COAL: Environmental groups sue to require West Virginia to treat water pollution from bankrupt coal mines. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
ALSO:
• Ratepayers of Southern Company’s utilities may be on the hook for more of the rising costs of building its Kemper “clean coal” power plant in Mississippi. (Associated Press)
• Armstrong Coal in Kentucky issues layoff notices to 107 workers. (SurfKY News)
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COAL ASH: Dominion Virginia Power prepares to release the equivalent of 240 Olympic-size swimming pools of wastewater into the James River. (WWBT)
POLITICS: Climate and energy issues percolate differently along the Southeast’s Atlantic and Gulf coastlines. (E&E Daily)
POLICY: Duke University seeks to break North Carolina utilities’ monopoly on electricity sales. (The Duke Chronicle)
STORAGE:
• An energy storage conference returns to Charlotte and finds five times the number of registrants that showed up in 2010, including several exhibitors based in the Southeast. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• A cluster of energy storage companies is growing in North Carolina, but they struggle to engage utilities there. (Charlotte Business Journal)
CLEAN POWER PLAN:
• Virginia lawmakers continue their attack on Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s efforts to comply with the Clean Power Plan. (The Virginian-Pilot)
• A Florida utility assesses its compliance options while trying to build the grid of the future. (The Ledger)
2010 BP OIL SPILL: Six years later, a new study shows the ecological toll of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow. (Washington Post)
OFFSHORE DRILLING:
• North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory says the lack of any revenue from drilling will starve beach replenishment projects. (Lumina News)
• Regulators relax monitoring of a decade-old oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico blamed on Taylor Energy. (Associated Press)
UTILITIES:
• Federal regulators consolidate and set for hearings over whether regulated rates of return for Duke Energy and Progress Energy are too high. (RTO Insider)
• Dominion Virginia Power begins generating electricity at its newest natural gas plant with another such plant in the works nearby. (Richmond Times Dispatch)
NATURAL GAS:
• Low natural gas prices for power plants in Virginia, West Virginia and parts of other Southeast states drove wholesale power prices to their lowest level in 15 years, PJM reports. (Platts)
• Reported prices for liquefied natural gas shipped from a Louisiana terminal destined for Europe, Asia and South America vary amid the fuel’s global supply glut. (Argus Media)
• NTE Energy plans a second large natural gas-fired plant in North Carolina. (Charlotte Business Journal)
WIND: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is among those who vote against restoring a taxpayer subsidy for wind research. (Washington Times)
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NUCLEAR: Opponents argue Georgia Power can meet demand for electricity without building more reactors. (Augusta Chronicle)
COMMENTARY:
• The only solar initiative in Florida worth voting for is on the August primary ballot, not the November general election ballot. (Bradenton Herald)
• The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky outlines how it is embracing cleaner energy and sustainability. (Louisville Courier-Journal)