NUCLEAR: Emergency responders extinguish a transformer fire at the TVA’s Watts Bar 2 reactor in Tennessee, delaying its full-power start for commercial operations. (Times Free Press)
EFFICIENCY: A former homebuilder turns his passion for sustainability into a solutions center for “zero-energy” makeovers in Virginia. (Southeast Energy News)
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COAL ASH:
• North Carolina regulators say Duke Energy will pay for new water lines or filtration systems for 1,000 households near ash storage sites. (Associated Press)
• Residents of 171 houses in North Carolina’s Dukeville community are set to receive a new, permanent water supply to avoid contamination from ash stored nearby. (Salisbury Post)
• A sparse but skeptical audience gathers to hear Duke Energy and North Carolina officials outline plans for disposing of ash next to the utility’s power plant along the Dan River. (Greensboro News & Record)
• More than a half million tons of ash have been moved from Duke Energy’s power plant along the Dan River to a lined landfill in Central Virginia. (GoDanRiver.com)
SOLAR:
• Despite the overwhelming passage of Florida’s solar Amendment 4 this week, questions surround the run-up to its solar Amendment 1 on the November 8 ballot. (Greentech Media)
• A non-profit launches a “Stories of Solar” campaign featuring families and businesses throughout the South. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
• Homeowners living in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula are gathering as part of the latest bulk-purchasing cooperative to launch in the state. (Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal)
CLIMATE: North Carolina’s attorney general, who is running for governor, says the state should stop trying to block the Clean Power Plan. (Asheville Citizen-Times)
OFFSHORE DRILLING: House Republicans aim to bring up a bill this month that would conduct lease sales online. (The Hill)
GRID: Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory map how the power grid serving the Eastern U.S. theoretically could operate with a yearly average of 30% renewables. (Greentech Media)
OIL & GAS: Louisiana ports are awash with “dead iron” from discarded drilling equipment. (Hellenics Shipping News)
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WIND: A judge subpoenas records related to a failed effort to build a wind farm in Arkansas. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
COMMENTARY:
• Mississippi Power is trying to re-package its lemon of a “clean coal” plant into lemonade. (Mississippi Watchdog)
• Beware of Florida’s solar Amendment 1 on its November 8 ballot: a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)