BIOMASS: Wood pellet manufacturing has fallen short of climate and job goals but brought noise and air pollution to Black and low-wealth communities across the South, with Alabama and Mississippi targeted for future expansion. (Southerly/Scalawag/Environmental Health News)

EFFICIENCY: Atlanta leads the region in an annual ranking of major U.S. city policy efforts on energy efficiency and renewables, while Orlando slips from the Top 20 but still leads Florida cities. (ACEEE, Orlando Sentinel)

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OIL & GAS: A new report questions the economic feasibility of the liquified natural gas industry, including three proposed or existing facilities in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)

PIPELINES:
• Texas pipeline operators are slashing fees to keep crude flowing through their networks as oil demand craters and prices crash. (Bloomberg)
• A gas pipeline rupture that closed a turnpike in West Palm Beach, Florida, for hours last month released 12 million cubic feet of natural gas. (WPTV)

COAL ASH: A federal judge’s ruling last week says  a Tennessee county waited too long to sue the Tennessee Valley Authority and a contractor over the cleanup of the nation’s largest ever coal ash spill. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

SOLAR:
• West Virginia regulators approve a siting certificate for a planned 90 MW solar farm that is expected to be built by local union workers. (Associated Press)
• An eastern Virginia economic development authority buys a former naval fuel depot that will soon be the site of a 20 MW solar facility. (Daily Press)
• Entergy and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments break ground on a pair of solar projects in Louisiana totalling 70 MW of capacity. (Solar Power World)
• The city and county of Durham, North Carolina, looks to buy 30 MW of solar from a Duke Energy program. (Charlotte Business Journal, subscription)
• Entergy Arkansas says customers who sign up for a new optional solar purchase program will collectively save $60 million over the next 19 years. (TB&P)

WIND: A wind energy degree at Texas Tech is preparing students for careers in renewable energy. (Daily Toreador)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An electric vehicle fair over the weekend gave Birmingham, Alabama, drivers a chance to kick the tires on a range of plug-in vehicles. (Alabama News Center)

COMMENTARY: An analysis finds that joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would help North Carolina reduce emissions and lower overall system costs. (Environmental Defense Fund)

Dan has two decades' experience working in print, digital and broadcast media. Prior to joining the Energy News Network as managing editor in December 2017, he oversaw watchdog reporting at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, part of the USA Today Network, and before that spent several years as a freelance journalist covering energy, business and technology. Dan is a former Midwest Energy News journalism fellow and a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communications from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.