UTILITIES: After intense lobbying, the Memphis City Council denies a key contract with a consultant that would have helped the city’s municipal utility study alternatives to buying power from the Tennessee Valley Authority. (Commercial Appeal)

PIPELINES: A coalition of environmental groups ask a federal appeals court to suspend recently issued stream-crossing permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline until the court can hear their full legal challenge. (Roanoke Times)

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SOLAR:
• A Florida county board denies a zoning exemption for a 650-acre solar project in a predominantly Black community after some residents said the proposal constituted environmental racism and would hurt property values. (WUFT)
• One North Carolina county enacts a temporary moratorium on solar farms while another adopts likely the state’s most stringent solar ordinance with setbacks and several design requirements. (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Stanly News & Press)

COAL ASH:
• Georgia Power says projects are completed or underway at 19 of the utility’s 29 coal ash ponds slated for permanent closure. (Savannah Morning News)
• Duke Energy will host a public meeting next week on its response to coal ash polluting groundwater near a Florida power plant. (Citrus County Chronicle)
• Georgia environmental groups recognize two state lawmakers for their efforts to protect water from coal ash pollution. (Brunswick News)

COAL: West Virginia University researchers are working to develop a better methane monitoring system to prevent underground mine explosions. (WV News)

NUCLEAR: The demolition of a former Duke Energy nuclear plant in Florida will take seven years instead of six decades because of a drop in costs. (Orlando Sentinel)

OIL & GAS: Crews worked to contain a leak in Texas after logging equipment struck an old well site, causing oil and natural gas to spew into the air. (KJAS)

COMMENTARY:
• As incumbents beat the same old drum, several Appalachian candidates are campaigning on the promise of clean energy jobs, a columnist writes. (Forbes)
• Virginia’s “zany and expensive regulatory model” rigs the system in Dominion Energy’s favor in a way not seen in any other state, a critic writes. (NRDC)
• An environmental advocate asks whether a pumped hydro project in Southwest Virginia is necessary or “one more Dominion boondoggle?” (Virginia Mercury)
• A columnist says U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, is wrong about wind and solar power being “silly solutions,” but correct that we need to embrace nuclear power. (Houston Chronicle)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority and neighbors of its Bull Run power plant share statements in response to misinformation on water quality. (Oak Ridger)

Dan has two decades' experience working in print, digital and broadcast media. Prior to joining the Energy News Network as managing editor in December 2017, he oversaw watchdog reporting at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, part of the USA Today Network, and before that spent several years as a freelance journalist covering energy, business and technology. Dan is a former Midwest Energy News journalism fellow and a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communications from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.