CLIMATE: State officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, according to former Department of Environmental Protection employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. (Miami Herald)

SOLAR:
• Utilities are making it more costly for homeowners to make their own power but solar advocates in Virginia and elsewhere, including many conservatives, are fighting back. (Washington Post)
• Programs offering bulk purchasing discounts to make rooftop solar systems more affordable are sprouting throughout North Carolina. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• The state utility commission is to review a Duke Energy application to reduce rates paid for electricity generated by solar and other renewable energy systems. (The Charlotte Observer)
• A 4.2 MW solar system in North Carolina built with local labor, local equipment and with financing through a local bank is has begun generating electricity. (Solar Novus Today)

COAL: One worker is killed and two more are injured in a West Virginia mine collapse. (WTRF-TV)

OIL: An oil-train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and West Virginia’s rig count dropped from 29 to 17 over the last year a faster pace than neighboring states. (Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald, Wheeling News-Register)

COAL ASH: Reports of leaking arsenic next to a South Carolina lake are raising fresh questions about legacy challenges from waste dump containing coal ash and low-level radioactive materials, and Duke Energy could legally leak pollutants from some of its coal ash dumps under new wastewater permits proposed by North Carolina regulators. (The State, Associated Press)

PIPELINES: Mountain Valley Pipeline is threatening legal action against West Virginia property owners opposing surveys of their land. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

TRANSPORTATION: A Mississippi county is weighing converting its vehicle fleet to natural gas from diesel and gasoline. (Oxford Citizen)

JOB CREATION: North Carolina added 1,420 clean energy jobs last year, ranking eighth nationwide according to Environmental Entrepreneurs. (Raleigh News & Observer)

FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT: Brevard College in North Carolina says it’s the first college south of the Mason-Dixon line to divest from fossil fuels. (Huffington Post)

COMMENTARY: As the #2 state in the U.S. for electric vehicle ownership, EVs are poised to play key role in Georgia’s clean energy future. (Augusta Chronicle)