UTILITIES: The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund dumps its investments in Duke Energy and its subsidiaries over its management of coal ash. (Bloomberg)
ALSO:
• Activists in Virginia push for tougher customer advocacy. (Southeast Energy News)
• After retiring 30 coal-fired power plants since 2011, Duke Energy defends its transition to cleaner fuels. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• A unit of a Chinese manufacturer selects Wilson County, North Carolina over Norfolk, Virginia to launch a company to service utilities’ equipment needs. (Triangle Business Journal)
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NUCLEAR: The TVA returns its Watts Bar Unit 1 reactor to service after a transformer fire, while Unit 2 faces a prolonged outage. (The Energy Fix blog)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: Documents from a records request by a watchdog group illustrate how coal companies and Republican attorneys general are working to defeat the Clean Power Plan. (Bloomberg)
SOLAR:
• Is your roof in Northern Virginia good for solar? Now there’s an app for that. (WTOP)
• How the chair of Atlanta’s Tea Party, Debbie Dooley, learned to love solar. (United States of Solar)
CLIMATE: A University of Virginia professor joins with a Washington Post cartoonist for a satirical look at climate change. See here for another interview with author and professor Michael Mann. (WVTF Public Radio, Midwest Energy News archive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A technical training center in Alabama partners with Alabama Power’s Farley nuclear plant to build and race an electric vehicle. (Dothan Eagle)
PIPELINES: After it was struck by a dredging operation, a ruptured pipeline that leaked 5,300 gallons of oil in south Louisiana has been secured, the Coast Guard says. (Associated Press)
2010 BP OIL SPILL: Lawmakers in Alabama today try to break a deadlock over how to use the state’s share of settlement money. (Alabama Media Group)
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BLANKENSHIP CONVICTION: Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship file the final legal papers in his appeal contesting his convicted. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
COMMENTARY:
• Counties in North Carolina should be able to decide whether wind energy projects make sense for them. (Greensboro News & Record)
• Parsing a “jolting difference” in the price for electricity among Florida’s three largest electric utilities. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Energy efficiency offers an alternative to budget overruns at nuclear reactors under construction in South Carolina. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
• In Virginia, a government by the people and for the people means not having to serve corporate interests including Dominion Virginia Power and its approach to solar energy. (RappNews)