GRID: Residents in two Louisiana parishes hard hit by Hurricane Ida say they’ve received high bills from Entergy stacked with fees and surcharges, even though some don’t have homes, are running on generator power or don’t have any power lines connected to their property. (Houma Today)

CLIMATE:
• Parts of Kentucky could be without heat, water or electricity in winter weather for weeks after tornado damage. (Lexington Herald Leader, Associated Press)
• At least 88 people were killed by the tornadoes, which also damaged buildings and communities in five states. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Scientists say climate change not only brings warmer winters but also frigid cold snaps like February’s blast of arctic air that knocked out much of Texas’ power grid. (Texas Tribune)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Fort Worth, Texas, courted electric vehicle maker Rivian with a $440 million tax incentive package but seems to have lost the deal to Georgia, where an announcement is expected Thursday. (Fort Worth Business Press, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

BIOMASS: Growth by the world’s largest wood pellet maker, which operates nine plants in the Southeast, fuels growing opposition from a neighboring North Carolina community that’s mostly low-income and majority Black. (WFAE)

EMISSIONS:
• A COP26 pledge to reduce methane emissions could impact North Carolina hog farms and nearby communities that involve longstanding social and environmental justice issues, multiple legal challenges and more. (Coastal Review)
• A Tennessee border city prepares to sue its sister city in Virginia for violating gas well drilling regulations and failing to monitor emissions, resulting in foul odors from its landfill. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

SOLAR: Alabama Power collaborates with Mercedes Benz on an 80 MW solar plant that will cover a significant portion of the automaker’s energy needs at two plants. (AL.com)

OIL & GAS: A private equity fund merges two energy companies in the Permian Basin to create an oil producer worth more than $4 billion that it wants to take public as soon as next year. (Reuters)

NUCLEAR: The former senior resident inspector at a Virginia nuclear plant pleads guilty to making false reports that could have jeopardized the plant’s safety. (WWBT)

WIND: An energy developer purchases wind turbine companies for a 196 MW wind farm in central Texas. (Renews)

STORAGE: Florida Power & Light unveils the world’s largest solar-powered battery, a 40-acre facility with a capacity of 409 MW. (Sarasota)

UTILITIES: A natural gas company asks Arkansas regulators to raise rates 10% for about 180,000 customers in the northern part of the state. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY:
• Virginia should reject a permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross waterways because it is an “environmental justice disaster,” writes a state lawmaker. (Roanoke Times)
• Federal initiatives will provide historic funding for coal communities to invest in energy efficiency and solar projects that can make a substantial difference for local governments in eastern Kentucky and beyond, writes a nonprofit energy staff member. (Lexington Herald Leader)
• The announcement of Toyota’s plan to build electric vehicle batteries in North Carolina reveals the hypocrisy of the state’s legislative leaders with regard to the climate crisis, writes the director of a justice-oriented policy site. (N.C. Policy Watch)

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.