PIPELINES: The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s lead partner acknowledges “greater uncertainty” regarding its completion and another delay in its in-service date, but pledges to keep building after the loss of two key permits. (Roanoke Times, Virginia Mercury)

SOLAR:
• Critics of Florida Power & Light’s push to lower rates it pays to rooftop solar customers argue that ratepayers already pay subsidies for projects unrelated to the power they use. (Miami Herald)
• A solar energy services firm expands to nearly double its office space in Houston, reflecting the Texas city’s burgeoning renewables sector. (Houston Chronicle)
• A South Korean electronics firm confirms it will close an Alabama solar module factory due to rising costs and supply chain troubles. (PV Tech)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric vehicle maker Envirotech Vehicles announces a factory in Arkansas. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Hyundai seeks to hire 600 workers at its Alabama assembly plant amid a $7.4 billion push to expand electric vehicle production. (Montgomery Advertiser)
• Oklahoma competes with neighboring Kansas to lure an electric vehicle battery factory. (KPVI, Tulsa World)
• North Carolina regulators approve part of a Duke Energy proposal to help its customers install electric vehicle chargers, but order the utility to reconsider other elements of its plan to determine whether it might incorporate more federal funding. (Charlotte Business Journal, subscription)

NUCLEAR: Georgia lawmakers consider legislation to allow Georgia Power to finance its long-delayed Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion and other projects through ratepayer-backed bonds. (The Current)

HYDROGEN: A coalition of energy and investment companies sign an agreement with a Texas port to explore ways to develop a gigawatt-scale green hydrogen hub on the Gulf Coast. (S&P Global)

WIND: Federal lawmakers visit a wind turbine project under construction off the Virginia coast with an eye to how it will benefit from the infrastructure package. (Suffolk News-Herald)

COAL: The coal industry’s contraction leaves an eastern Kentucky county struggling with a 15.2% unemployment rate — the highest in the state. (WLEX)

OIL & GAS: Midstream pipeline operator Williams identifies the Haynesville Shale area of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas as a growth area for production and as a gas transportation corridor. (S&P Global)

RATEPAYERS: Low-income North Carolina residents struggle with rising energy costs amid harsher winter weather. (The Pilot)

GRID: A trial begins involving Texas’ largest electric cooperative and its complaint against the state grid operator over a $2 billion bill during last year’s winter storm. (Reuters)

CLIMATE: Florida lawmakers advance legislation to shore up the state’s defenses against sea-level rise and inland flooding, but do little to reduce air pollution and other drivers of climate change. (Florida Phoenix)

COMMENTARY:
• The head of Virginia’s Sierra Club chapter calls on state lawmakers to hold the line against Republican rollbacks of environmental justice and clean energy laws. (Virginia Mercury)
• Major energy projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline increasingly struggle to navigate federal statutes and agency approvals, leading to fewer pipeline developers even trying, writes a libertarian think tank. (Competitive Enterprise Institute)

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.