OIL & GAS: A Florida law to prohibit localities from restricting fossil fuels smothers Tampa’s efforts to transition to clean energy through a ban on new natural gas infrastructure. (Grist)

ALSO:
• A new study shows Louisiana’s reliance on oil and tourism hampered its economic recovery from the pandemic compared to states with more diverse markets. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• An oil company will buy half a billion dollars of oil and gas wells in west Texas’ prolific Delaware Basin. (Houston Chronicle) 

COAL:
• About 1,100 striking Alabama miners are joined by union advocates from across the country in a rally against Warrior Met Coal outside BlackRock’s headquarters in New York City. (Guardian, Bloomberg)
• U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia received nearly $500,000 — more than twice his salary as a senator — from shares in a coal company that acts as a contractor for one of the state’s dirtiest coal plants, according to financial disclosures. (Vice)

INFRASTRUCTURE:
• West Virginia electric vehicle and clean energy advocates press the state’s influential U.S. senators to include climate-friendly projects in a federal infrastructure package. (WBOY, Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• An eastern Texas electric cooperative partners with a county government to expand broadband internet. (KLTV)

UTILITIES: A western North Carolina utility gives members $6 million in bill credits from Duke Energy’s final coal ash settlement. (Avery Journal)

EMISSIONS:
• A professor identifies and maps the 20 Louisiana industrial plants most responsible for carbon dioxide emissions. (NOLA.com)
• A central Arkansas water utility pledges to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through upgrades to its plants and vehicle fleet. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

SOLAR:
• A split Virginia city council approves a 4 MW solar farm, with opponents expressing concern about agricultural land. (Suffolk News-Herald)
• An Arkansas family’s use of solar power in its poultry operation attracts attention and leads to its being named the county farm family of the year. (Cleveland County Herald)

ELECTRIC CARS: A South Korean battery maker that supplies Tesla and General Motors sees quarterly profits surge after settling a trade dispute with a rival company. (Reuters)

GRID:
• A clean electricity company moving from California opts to build its new headquarters in North Carolina over Texas, in part because of its grid interconnectivity. (KVUE)
• A more active hurricane season tests utilities’ power grids along the Gulf Coast and pushes some residents to buy household generators. (WBHM/WWNO/Mississippi Public Broadcasting/NPR)
• A summer heat wave drives up energy demand and strains grids across the Southeast this week, including in Tennessee and Texas. (WBIR, Reuters)
• Officials in north Texas say electric outages this week stemmed from equipment failure at a substation and not summer heat or grid issues. (Times Record News)
• Dominion Energy is conducting a program to identify frequently damaged power lines and move them underground to reduce outages. (Vienna Connection)

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.