FLORIDA: The state Supreme Court has rejected a last-minute bid by solar advocates to invalidate Amendment 1. (Miami Herald)
ALSO:
• By this count, 27 newspapers have editorialized against Amendment 1. (Floridians for Solar Choice)
• The union representing the state’s professional firefighters withdraws its endorsement of Amendment 1 and demands the utilities’ campaign pull its TV ads featuring them. (Miami Herald)
• In the final full week of spending, the utility-backed campaign spent $4.3 million boosting its total through Nov. 4 to $25.4 million. (SaintPetersBlog)
• The Amendment 1 campaign has received $4.4 million in donations from three non-profits utilities have contributed money to. (Florida Bulldog)
COAL ASH:
• How North Carolina’s coal ash law could make it tougher to recycle the material into concrete. (Southeast Energy News)
• A letter from the EPA rebuts statements from the TVA claiming the agency had signed off on plans to cap coal ash ponds. (Southeast Energy News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Duke Energy agrees to buy electric pickup trucks in 2018. (Wall Street Journal)
WIND: GE’s signing on as a supplier to the Clean Line transmission project boosts prospects for the multi-state bid to get wind-generated power to Southeast states. (CleanTechnica)
SOLAR: Two Kentucky utilities planning a community solar project face opposition over aesthetics as well as the proposed charges for participants. (Louisville Courier-Journal)
COAL: The start date for the Kemper “clean coal” plant is pushed out again, this time to the end of December, threatening a $250 million federal tax credit. (Associated Press)
PIPELINES:
• Colonial restarts its primary gas pipeline segment in Alabama. (Alabama Media Group)
• Virginia regulators push for $11 million in fines against Virginia Natural Gas over several violations along the state’s Peninsula. (Daily Press)
• Last week’s deadly explosion of a Colonial gasoline pipeline in Alabama had only a muted effect on gasoline prices in several Southeast states. (CNBC)
• The National Transportation Safety Board says it will investigate the latest Colonial Pipeline explosion. (ThinkProgress)
• Protesters camp out in Florida to slow construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline. (The Gainesville Sun)
• Virginians make personal appeals against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. (Nelson County Times)
COMMENTARY:
• Will Florida voters be duped into killing solar power over Amendment 1? (The Nation)
• Do we need more nuclear power plants? (Johnson City Press)
• Florida’s utilities are using people of color as a political prop against solar. (Huffington Post)
• Approving Florida’s solar Amendment 1 puts homeowners and business even more at the mercy of monopoly utilities. (Huffington Post)
CORRECTION: Last Friday’s email digest incorrectly attributed this commentary about coal ash in Alabama. The author is Amelia Shenstone, who directs the coal program for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.