COAL ASH: Georgia Power’s acquisition of nearly 1,900 acres around five of its 12 coal ash ponds could shield it from millions of dollars in cleanup costs. (ProPublica)

ALSO:
• Georgia Power reports that cleanup of coal ash at a northwest Georgia plant will take 15 years. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A federal judge rules that a Knoxville newspaper can protect the identities of its sources in an investigation of radioactivity in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash waste. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

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SOLAR: A rapid proliferation of solar farms puts Texas on a course that could see it eventually surpass California as the nation’s leader in solar capacity. (Wall Street Journal)

WIND: Offshore wind power has become the most ambitious and expensive part of Virginia’s plan to achieve a carbon-free grid by 2050. (Virginia Mercury)

NUCLEAR:
• Duke Energy Florida begins decommissioning a damaged nuclear reactor at its Crystal River Energy Complex, 50 years ahead of its original schedule. (Tampa Bay Times)
• A former South Carolina utility official pleads guilty to fraud involving the failed $10 billion V.C. Summer nuclear project. (The State)

OIL & GAS:
• A Texas city shuts down a natural gas drilling site after it violates an ordinance requiring electric-powered rigs near homes and other protected places. (Fort Worth Star Telegram)
• A company based in the Bahamas plans to begin looking for oil at a well 150 miles off Florida’s coast, despite an executive order that bans offshore drilling off the state’s Atlantic coast. (Miami Herald) 

PIPELINES: A congressional subcommittee presses the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about its process for resolving conflicts between pipeline companies and landowners along project routes. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)

UTILITIES: After Virginia regulators deny its requested rate increase, Appalachian Power appeals the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court. (Roanoke Times)

GRID: The East Kentucky Power Cooperative expects to complete construction of a substation by the end of December. (Commonwealth Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Tennessee approves $35 million in incentives for General Motors to retool a factory to build electric vehicles. (Associated Press)

CLIMATE:
• A Georgia group inspired by the 2017 book “Drawdown” releases 20 proposals that if widely adopted could reduce Georgia’s annual carbon output by 35% over the next decade. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Radford University forms a task force to pursue making its western Virginia campus carbon-neutral. (Roanoke Times)

POLITICS:
• West Virginia’s coal, oil and gas industries prepare for a shift in presidential administrations and watch for signs of how President-elect Joe Biden will approach fossil fuels. (WVNews) 

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Mason Adams

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.