GRID: An investigation by ProPublica and NPR finds Entergy and its New Orleans subsidiary failed to take necessary steps to protect the power grid against outages, despite opportunities after several big hurricanes to increase resilience. (ProPublica/WWNO)

ALSO:
• The New Orleans City Council moves to investigate Entergy and its role in the failures of transmission lines and other infrastructure during Hurricane Ida. (NOLA.com)
• Federal officials will present their preliminary findings on the Texas blackouts during the February freeze in a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meeting today. (Houston Chronicle)
• A federal court rules that lawsuits against more than 100 power companies over the collapse of Texas’ electrical grid during February’s winter storm should be heard at the state level. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)

OIL & GAS:
• Experts predict Royal Dutch Shell’s sale of its Permian Basin assets will have little effect on employment and emissions given that buyer ConocoPhillips intends to continue operations. (Texas Tribune)
• A Louisiana parish passes a resolution in support of resuming federal offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico after the Biden administration paused all lease sales earlier this year. (KLFY)

COAL: West Virginia regulators prepare to decide whether state ratepayers should shoulder the full cost of wastewater upgrades required to keep three coal-fired plants open through 2040 after Kentucky and Virginia regulators both denied the requests as uneconomical. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

UTILITIES:
• San Antonio’s municipal electric utility struggles to recruit workers and stands to lose up to half of its workforce to retirement by 2026. (San Antonio Report)
• A Virginia electric cooperative sets a public hearing for its planned rate increase. (Northern Virginia Daily)

NUCLEAR: An eastern Tennessee industrial board considers prosecuting trespassers at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s canceled Phipps Bend nuclear reactor site. (Rogersville Review)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Florida transportation and utility officials brief state lawmakers on the recent history and future of electric vehicles in the state, suggesting infrastructure investments can give Florida a head start in the evolving industry. (Florida Politics)
• A maker of automatic and hybrid transmission systems opens near Toyota’s large-scale San Antonio plant, with another company that makes systems for self-driving, internet-connected and electric vehicles set to open next year. (San Antonio Report)
• San Antonio’s municipal utility opens a new electric vehicle charger at a zoo parking garage, marking the first of 50 new charging stations to come. (Texas Public Radio)
• A bank announces the installation of its first electric vehicle charger at a branch in central Virginia. (news release)

COMMENTARY:
• Loan and other support programs to fund the diversification of southwestern Virginia’s economy beyond its historic reliance on coal are producing results, writes an economic recovery coordinator. (Bristol Herald-Courier)
• American Electric Power’s pledge to reduce its carbon emissions 80% by 2030 and be carbon-free by 2050 is undercut in Arkansas by its reliance on two coal-fired power plants and plans to build a new natural gas plant, writes the director of the state Sierra Club. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

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.