CARBON CAPTURE: A union of 600 workers who are locked out from an ExxonMobil refinery in Texas leverages its labor struggle to undermine the company’s efforts to build a $100 billion carbon-capture hub in Houston. (Grist, E&E News) 

OIL & GAS:
• The White House announces it will send $1.15 billion to states to clean up thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells that leak methane. (Washington Post)
• Louisiana will receive about $47 million in federal infrastructure funding to plug and clean up orphan wells, with that figure expected to grow to at least $111.4 million in later phases. (NOLA.com)
• A report finds Texas regulators routinely offer loopholes and incentives that let oil and gas companies avoid cleaning up their abandoned wells. (Texas Public Radio)
• Oklahoma regulators announce they’ll shut some deep saltwater disposal wells and restrict others after a significant earthquake rattles communities. (Reuters)

EMISSIONS:
• A Louisiana task force unanimously approves a state plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions 2050 by relying on hydrogen-based fuels and renewables. (NOLA.com)
• North Carolina regulators begin drafting a plan to cut carbon emissions from electricity generation 70% by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. (WFAE)

PIPELINES: The newly commissioned Double E Pipeline begins delivering natural gas from the Permian Basin to Kinder Morgan’s intrastate Gulf Coast Express. (S&P Global)

SOLAR: Duke Energy announces the start of commercial operations at 50 MW and 22.6 MW solar farms in North Carolina. (Daily Energy Insider)

NUCLEAR: West Virginia lawmakers pass a bill to lift the state’s ban on nuclear power plant construction, sending it to the governor for his signature. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Virginia lawmakers pass a bill with bipartisan support to fine drivers caught parking a gas-powered car or truck in a spot meant for electric-vehicle charging. (Virginia Mercury)

WIND: A North Carolina wind advocacy group seeks to assuage concerns that offshore wind facilities would affect tourism by presenting visualizations to coastal residents showing that wind turbines won’t be easily seen from shore. (Raleigh News & Observer, Wilmington StarNews)

GRID:
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly asks cryptocurrency companies to shut down if the state grid appears it may fail like it nearly did during last year’s winter storm. (Bloomberg)
• Texans fret about the reliability of the state power grid as a winter storm approaches. (KTVT, KXAS)
• A Tennessee company makes solar-powered sensors that monitor the condition of electric networks and were developed in response to a 2009 series of Australian fires sparked by failing power infrastructure. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

UTILITIES: Georgia Power releases a long-term planning document with proposals to double its solar capacity by 2035 while closing some coal plants this year, others by 2027 or 2028, and its final coal-fired units by 2035. (WABE)

COMMENTARY: Virginians should push the state to provide stricter oversight and more scrutiny of renewable gas operations on mega-landfills that provide health challenges for nearby residents, writes a professor and climate advocate for children. (Virginia Mercury)

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.