SOLAR: The Miami Herald defends its reporter against Florida Power & Light for what the utility calls “unfair” coverage of its efforts to push legislation to change Florida’s net-metering rules and hobble rooftop solar. (Miami Herald)

ALSO: Dominion Energy sends mobile “solar spots” to communities in central Virginia that have been without power since a snowstorm on Monday. (WVIR, WWBT)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• North Carolina and other southeastern states worry Michigan’s new $1 billion economic development fund could stymie their attempts to compete for electric vehicle and battery manufacturers. (Charlotte Business Journal, subscription)
• A Texas auto dealer says customers are “extremely, extremely excited” about the new all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck, but adds he’s disappointed that parts shortages and other issues are preventing Ford from building trucks fast enough to meet demand. (Inside Climate News)
• Electric vehicle maker Rivian sees its stock drop as more traditional automakers such as Ford and General Motors set aggressive EV targets, while its CFO promises to use investment and revenue to grow production capacity. (Reuters; Wall Street Journal, subscription)

COAL:
• West Virginia regulators deny an attempt by a struggling coal plant with connections to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin to buy out of a contract so it can pivot to cryptocurrency mining. (E&E News, Vice)
• Energy company Luminant looks to sell a Texas property that’s home to a state park, as well as a lake it used to cool a coal plant that was closed in 2018. (Texas Public Radio)
• A Mississippi school system scrambles for funding as it faces the loss of roughly $6 million beginning in 2028 from the decommissioning of a coal-fired power plant. (WXXV)
• Two southwestern Virginia people are convicted for falsifying coal mining safety training documents. (WFHG)

EMISSIONS: A small natural gas plant near Galveston Bay, Texas, could set a new emissions standard for the industry because it reuses most of the carbon dioxide that’s produced from generating electricity and captures the rest. (Texas Monthly)

PIPELINES:
• An Oklahoma-based company says its interstate Transco pipeline delivered a record amount of natural gas this month to users along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast. (Tulsa World)
• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials assert the long-delayed project is on track to complete construction and begin service this summer despite legal challenges to water permits from Virginia and West Virginia. (Natural Gas Intelligence, subscription)

CLIMATE: Florida officials and climate advocates rally around the Everglades as a potential victim of rising seas, but also a powerful tool to slow climate change and protect South Florida from future flooding. (Miami Herald)

GRID:
• Power has been restored to nearly 70,000 members of a Virginia electric cooperative who had been without power since a winter storm Monday. (WTVR)
• Entergy Mississippi prepares for a $14 million substation expansion project to improve transmission infrastructure in southwest Mississippi and Louisiana. (Daily Energy Insider)

COMMENTARY: Electric and gas utilities are misleadingly using the promise of renewable natural gas and hydrogen to convince regulators to allow construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure, writes an energy think tank. (Energy and Policy Institute)

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.