NUCLEAR:
• The cost of two nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle in Georgia escalates to $28.5 billion, more than twice the original price tag, and the plant’s other owners argue Georgia Power has tripped an agreement to pay a larger share of the ongoing overruns. (Associated Press)
• A hazardous waste management contractor that moves radioactive and chemical waste in Tennessee upgrades its fleet to incorporate technology that tracks movement between cleanup sites. (WBIR)

GRID:
• Entergy estimates damages from Hurricane Ida at $2.7 billion and seeks funding for repairs from the congressional infrastructure bill. (WDSU)
• Texas regulators and natural gas producers say the state’s grid is better prepared for winter than it was in February, but critics remain skeptical. (KTXA)

COAL:
• Southern Co. announces it will close 55% of its coal fleet by the end of the decade, including units at the nation’s two largest coal-fired power plants and one of the last coal generators in Mississippi. (E&E News)
• Georgia regulators consider whether Georgia Power can leave tens of millions of cubic yards of coal ash in place at five current or former coal-powered plants. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

SOLAR: U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia stumps for a bill to boost domestic manufacturing of solar panels that made it into Democrats’ infrastructure package and could lay the groundwork for a new domestic supply chain that would make the solar industry less reliant on China. (HuffPost)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appoints a mayor and bank executive to the board that oversees the site where Ford plans to build an electric vehicle and battery complex. (Associated Press)
• A company’s $27 million expansion to support future electric-vehicle-related business becomes the latest economic development announcement in a busting Kentucky county. (WBKO)

OIL & GAS: Large oil companies race to sell off holdings in the Permian Basin as rising crude oil prices present them an opportunity to jettison unwanted acreage to smaller firms at premium prices. (Reuters)

CLIMATE: A Florida county considers committing to shift all government operations to use renewable, zero-emission clean energy by 2040 and for the entire county to commit to such goals by 2050. (Spectrum News)

CRYPTOCURRENCY:
• An analyst warns that high energy consumption resulting from rapid expansion of cryptocurrency companies could strain and even buckle the fragile Texas power grid. (Chron/Houston Chronicle)
• Bitcoin mining companies take root in a Texas town at a sprawling former industrial complex. (KTBC)

COMMENTARY:
• A Tennessee congressional candidate touts Ford and SK Innovation’s $11.4 billion investment in electric vehicles and batteries as an expenditure of the scale needed to address generational poverty and climate change. (Tennessean)
• A nuclear engineering student argues that nuclear power creates less waste and is less harmful to the environment than solar and other renewables. (Courier Journal)
• Solar conservation, rooftop solar and utility-scale solar can succeed together to eliminate fossil fuel emissions by 2050, writes a retired Kentucky solar installer. (Courier Journal)
• A Tennessee journalist unpacks the role of Ford’s $5.8 billion investment to build electric vehicle and battery factories in state lawmakers’ debate over mask and vaccine mandates. (Tennessee Lookout)

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.