COAL ASH: Georgia regulators update rules for managing ash, but a leading environmental law firm says they don’t go far enough to protect well water. (Golden Isles News)

ALSO:
• A new Duke University study concludes ash is not to blame for toxins in well water around Duke Energy’s coal plants in North Carolina, but the contamination threat remains. (Progressive Pulse)
• Duke Energy receives a permit to build a lined landfill at the site of a massive ash spill along North Carolina’s Dan River two years ago. (Associated Press)

FLORIDA:
• The answer to why utilities are spending $22 million to “protect” consumers’ rights to solar systems in Amendment 1 is in the fine print. (Miami Herald)
• Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) adds her opposition to Amendment 1. (Creative Loafing Tampa Bay)

CLIMATE:
• With support from both environmentalists and oil and gas companies, Louisiana Republican Rep. Garret Graves hunkers down to mitigate climate change. (Greenwire)
• A group of 26 Florida scientists deliver a letter debunking Donald Trump’s claim that climate change is a “hoax.” (POLITICO Florida)

COAL:
• A research lab in West Virginia spawns two companies to recycle coal into fire-proof foam panels and molds for airplane parts. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• In the second round of federal grants to aid coalfield communities, West Virginia receives $5.6 million. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Days before a trial is to begin, attorneys for West Virginia residents reach a tentative settlement over a 2014 spill of a coal-cleansing chemical. (Associated Press)
• Regulators raise questions over just how much more it will cost Mississippi Power and its ratepayers to operate the Kemper “clean coal” plant. (Mississippi Watchdog)

SOLAR:
• What is expected to be the largest integrated commercial solar system in Florida sits atop a warehouse that cools and distributes beer. (Fort Myers News-Press)
• An environmental group spotlights how agriculture and solar energy can go hand-in-hand in North Carolina. (Southern Environmental Law Center)

WIND: From a control center in North Carolina, a unit of Duke Energy contracts to provide monitoring and dispatch services to the nation’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. (Charlotte Business Journal)

BLANKENSHIP CONVICTION: Appeals court judges grill Don Blankenship’s attorneys after they argue his trial made it too easy to conclude he willfully violated coal safety rules in 2014. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

PIPELINES: Businesses try to unify upgrade West Virginia’s energy infrastructure. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

POLITICS: An environmental group says it is spending $1.8 million to spur voters in North Carolina and five other battleground states. (The Hill)

POLICY: In Virginia, a new study outlines an approach to reducing carbon emissions by focusing on the “cost per ton of CO2 reduced.” (Bacon’s Rebellion)

COMMENTARY:
• Florida’s Amendment 1 is a shady deal, be sure to vote no. (Miami’s Community Newspapers)
• Dominion stands in the way of a clean energy future for Virginia. (Jacobin Magazine)
• With solar starting to grow in its territory, Dominion is working to accommodate an increasingly networked transmission grid. (Transmission and Distribution World)
• Duke Energy touts solar to North Carolina schools but is holding back the solar industry. (DeSmogBlog)