UTILITIES: A 2015 meeting and its timing between North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and senior Duke Energy officials, including CEO Lynn Good, is drawing scrutiny. (WRAL-TV)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: A new Department of Energy report finds the benefits of state renewable energy standards outweigh the costs by 7 to 1. (Greentech Media)

WIND: Neither of South Carolina’s investor-owned utilities intends to develop wind energy off the state’s coast. (The Post and Courier)

BIOENERGY:
• A North Carolina county approves the second and third anaerobic digester power plants in the U.S. (Sampson Independent)
• A conference center in Virginia is burning wood to generate electricity, reduce emissions and lower its power bill. (WVTF Public Radio)
• Burning switchgrass found in Virginia is proving to be a viable means of generating electricity. (WVTF Public Radio)
• A Florida county is turning over its yard waste to generate electricity. (Capital Gazette)

SOLAR: A bulk-purchasing co-op in Athens, Georgia reaches out to other communities. (The Oconee Enterprise)

FRACKING:
• West Virginia receives $18 million from fracking leases but no royalties yet. (Associated Press)
• Whether or not to frack in Florida depends on lots of details, including local geology. (Forward Florida)

LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS: The EPA is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revise how it calculates the climate change impacts of LNG export terminals. (SNL)

COAL ASH: The TVA is planning to close coal ash storage facilities at several of its power plants. (WKMS Public Radio)

COAL:
• Another bid by Republicans to block a surface mining rule to protect streams, this one sponsored by a West Virginia Congressman, moves towards a vote in the House. (The Hill)
• Exports from Virginia’s Hampton Roads region decline 34% in 2015 compared to 2014. (Platts)
• The number of coal mining deaths in the U.S. in 2015 — 11 — was the lowest on record. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• Walter Energy has received only one bid in the proposed sale of certain Alabama coal operations in its bid to emerge from bankruptcy. (SNL)
• Community colleges in southwest Virginia are receiving $2 million to help retrain laid-off coal miners. (Associated Press)
• Norfolk Southern is laying off 38 conductors and suspending training in response to declining coal shipments. (The Roanoke Times)

PIPELINES: A Dominion executive tells a North Carolina commission that its proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline could save consumers there $134 million annually. (Rhino Times)

SUSTAINABILITY: A Florida subdivision is aiming to achieve “platinum” status in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. (Treehugger)

COMMENTARY:
• Kentucky should get in on the clean energy boom. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• West Virginia: it’s time to stop worshiping coal. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Offshore drilling’s risks are too great for Virginia’s fishing industry. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• 2016 could be the last year of the “War on Coal.” (West Virginia Record)