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)

Jim Pierobon, a policy, marketing and social media strategist, was a founding contributor to Southeast Energy News. He passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer in 2018.

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