CLIMATE:
• As Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards attends the COP26 world climate summit, faith leaders and environmental activists fight climate change in a state that loses about a football field’s worth of wetlands every 100 minutes. (Associated Press)
• Edwards acknowledges Louisiana’s long embrace of gas and oil but touts solar, wind and other forms of clean energy as its future. (Louisiana Illuminator)

COAL:
• Coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice will resume production at four eastern Kentucky surface mines, including two where state regulators cite missed reclamation deadlines. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• Cleco and Southwestern Electric Power announce they will retire a Louisiana coal-fired power plant at the end of this year, five years ahead of schedule. (Argus Media)
• A Texas city’s municipal utility announces it will retain a stake in a coal-fired power plant, missing a climate goal to close its portion of the plant by next year. (Austin Monitor, KUT)
• A 49-year-old dies at a southern West Virginia coal mine. (WV Metro News)

PIPELINES: Environmental groups present arguments asking a federal appeals court to strike down two key permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, with a ruling expected by the end of the year. (Roanoke Times)

SOLAR: A Kentucky state siting board approves a 60 MW solar facility that still must be approved by a local board of adjusters that previously rejected it. (WPSD)

OVERSIGHT: A Virginia legislative commission on electric utility regulation has not met since 2017 despite a mounting number of reform proposals and a request from the state Senate asking it to review four bills. (Virginia Mercury)

POLITICS: Environmental activists criticize a North Carolina state senator for supporting energy legislation they say lacks an effective enforcement mechanism to make Duke Energy comply. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• North Carolina has registered more than 30,000 zero-emission vehicles as of August, marking 40% of its goal of registering 80,000 cars by 2025. (N.C. Policy Watch)
• A subsidiary of a Korean battery maker will invest $473 million to expand a Georgia factory to make semiconductor parts. (Global Atlanta)

GRID:
• A new study shows West Virginia customers pay some of the highest prices for power compared to other states in the PJM Interconnection market. (Parkersburg News & Sentinel)
• A Texas municipal utility moves to weatherize its equipment ahead of a December 1 deadline set by regulators. (KCBD)
• A former Congress member and CEO of an oil and gas company is appointed to the board overseeing Texas’ grid management agency. (The Eagle)

COAL ASH: Georgia Power says the cost of shutting down 29 coal ash storage ponds and 12 landfills has risen to $8.96 billion from its original estimate of $7.6 billion. (Engineering News-Record)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A cryptocurrency withdraws its permit application for a North Carolina facility across from an elementary school amid local opposition over potential noise and high energy consumption. (WITN)

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.