HYDROGEN: An energy company and its partners announce plans for a $3 billion renewable hydrogen facility in Mississippi — likely the country’s largest — that would use solar power to split hydrogen from water molecules and store it in underground salt caverns. (E&E News)

TVA:
• Three Tennessee power companies who considered splitting from the Tennessee Valley Authority claim the utility is improperly restricting necessary upgrades to its transmission lines. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Memphis, Tennessee’s municipal utility is among those closely watching how federal regulators decide a case involving three power companies that want to leave the Tennessee Valley Authority but continue to use its transmission lines. (Commercial Appeal)

SOLAR: A solar company announces it will use power purchase agreements to finance the installation of solar arrays in two southwestern Virginia school systems. (news release)

COAL: Coal prices rise as power generators look for alternatives to increasingly expensive natural gas, escalating power bills in coal-reliant places like West Virginia. (Ars Technica, CNN)

OIL & GAS:
• West Virginia regulators consider the proposed 1,200 MW expansion of a natural gas-fired plant that would include a cycle gas turbine facility and a transmission line. (WV Metro News)
• A gas company successfully uses a fully automated drilling rig in the Permian Basin as the region’s producers capitalize on high natural gas prices to rebound from a pandemic-induced downturn. (Carlsbad Current Argus)
• A six-part multimedia series aims to reveal how a fracking boom in Texas’ Permian Basin endangers vulnerable communities and the global climate. (Common Dreams)

GRID:
• Panelists at a clean energy conference favorably compare Virginia’s regulated electricity market to Texas’ deregulated market and standalone grid. (Virginia Mercury)
• Appalachian Power plans to rebuild 14 miles of electric transmission line and upgrade two substations in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. (Kingsport Times News)
• Oklahoma electric cooperatives consider building new substations and power lines to support the state’s rapidly growing cannabis industry. (KGOU)

CLIMATE:
• Dozens of volunteers with an environmental nonprofit plant 80 new trees in a historic New Orleans neighborhood and plan to plant at least 600 more to mitigate the effects of extreme heat and flooding. (NOLA.com)
• A western North Carolina county board approves resolutions to transition to zero-emission vehicles and expand what is already the state’s largest investment in public solar projects. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An Alabama company that makes car seats for Mercedes-Benz makes a hiring push to support growing production of Mercedes’ two electric vehicles. (WBRC)

POLITICS:
• About 20 Texas congress members and senators send a letter complaining about proposed changes by the Mexican government they claim will “discriminate against American energy producers.” (Associated Press)
• U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s latest campaign finance report shows contributions from mostly Texas-based oil and gas companies dwarfed those from West Virginia residents and state political action committees. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

COMMENTARY: A multibillion proposal for a green hydrogen hub in Mississippi could spark interest in a potentially vast enterprise, but it’s still unclear when and where the nascent industry will make sense on its own terms, writes an editor. (Canary Media)

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.