OIL & GAS: Colonial Pipeline says it hopes to restore services by the end of the week after a cyberattack as U.S. officials seek to ease concerns about price spikes and gasoline shortages. (Associated Press, WITN)

ALSO:
• U.S. gasoline prices jump and the American Automobile Association warns they could be headed for their highest levels since 2014 after the Colonial shutdown, while gas shortages begin to appear in parts of Florida and Georgia. (Reuters, WTXL)
• A Texas refinery reduces gasoline production because of concerns about the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. (Reuters)
• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declares a state of emergency amid rising fears about the fuel supply chain after the pipeline shutdown. (WTVD)
• New data suggest failures by natural gas producers and suppliers to keep gas flowing during February’s winter storm might have triggered as much as a fifth of the freeze-related power outages, even as the industry downplays its culpability and fights winterization proposals. (Austin American-Statesman, subscription)

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CLIMATE: Gov. John Bel Edwards announces plans for Louisiana to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, which, paired with an executive order to make the state carbon-free by 2050, marks a major shift in a state long reliant on production of oil, gas and petrochemicals. (NPR)

OVERSIGHT:
• The certification for a major Virginia natural gas plant expires without significant construction, casting the plant’s future in doubt as county officials ask developers to give back the land where it was supposed to be built. (Virginia Mercury)
• Family advocates and the Texas AARP urge state lawmakers to create a statewide alert system to be used during disasters and potential power outages. (KXAN)
• The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy shrinks its operations in the coal-producing southwestern part of the state while preparing for a name change to the Virginia Department of Energy. (Kingsport Times News)

POLITICS:
• The sponsor of a bill to make Louisiana a “fossil fuel sanctuary” withdraws it among tepid support from Republicans in the state legislature. (E&E News, subscription)
• Texas lawmakers block a bill to give a nuclear waste company a break on state fees while banning spent fuel rods from nuclear plants from entering the state for disposal. (Texas Tribune)
• Local and congressional Floridians press Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto a bill that would override local regulation of energy sources. (WUSF)
• A West Virginia Republican congressperson seeks to straddle climate change and the coal lobby with a bill to establish clean electricity standards that is among the most significant bipartisan efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. (E&E News, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Florida Power and Light adds chargers in preparation for an influx of electric cars, which are expected to double over the next five to 10 years. (WZVN)

SOLAR: A Texas county board rejects a requested tax break for a proposed solar farm. (KTAB)

COAL: Alpha Metallurgical Resources sees a $33 million net loss for the first quarter of 2021, an improvement from the previous quarter in which it lost $55 million. (Bristol Herald-Courier) 

COMMENTARY:
• Coal-fired power’s costs are inflated by hidden expenses in health care, environmental damage and abandoned mine cleanup, making it one of the costliest sources of electricity, writes a retired engineer and climate activist. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Virginia regulators shouldn’t allow a fossil fuel developer numerous opportunities to build an unwanted, unneeded gas plant, writes a professor and children’s advocate. (Virginia Mercury)

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.