EMISSIONS: A North Carolina power plant that burns wood and poultry waste to supply power for Duke Energy seeks to modify its state permit to increase emissions despite its repeated air regulation violations in a predominantly Native American, Black and Latino community. 

SOLAR:
• Florida residents have until 2028 to install rooftop solar panels before rate subsidies disappear under legislation passed by state lawmakers this week. (Tampa Bay Times, E&E News)
• Florida Power & Light seeks to build a solar farm in a Florida county, but approval is uncertain after an earlier project still under construction was approved only after a lawsuit. (Northwest Florida Daily News)
• A nonprofit launches a program to offer affordable rooftop solar installation for three low-income Florida neighborhoods. (WFSU)
• Florida Power & Light announces its completion of a fourth solar energy center, bringing its total to more than a million solar panels installed within a Florida county. (Sarasota)

OIL & GAS:
• President Biden bans imports of Russian oil, gas and coal and warns of a likely spike in fuel prices, but experts warn that increasing oil production in Texas and elsewhere won’t immediately bring them down. (New York Times, KXAN, Washington Post)
• Louisiana lawmakers and an independent Tennessee oil and gas producer are among those calling for the U.S. to produce more domestic fossil fuels to reduce its reliance on exports. (WDSU, WKRN)
• It’s still unclear why a Texas city’s power plant shut down during last year’s winter storm as officials dispute the plant manager’s explanation that its gas service was cut off. (WFAA)
• Two Texas cities see a natural gas outage due to a “system crash” that could take several days to repair. (KSAT)

WIND: A federal judge sentences two Arkansas men to a combined 23 years in prison after they were convicted of fraud and money laundering connected to a failed wind farm. (KTLO, Talk Business & Politics)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• North Carolina’s state education board buys five electric school buses as part of a pilot program. (WRAL)
• West Virginia’s capital city adds two electric vehicle charging stations in a parking garage near city hall. (WSAZ)

STORAGE: Duke Energy completes construction of an 11 MW lithium battery in Florida. (Alachua County Today)

NUCLEAR: Georgia lawmakers introduce legislation to end a Georgia Power surcharge that supports construction of its long-delayed nuclear Plant Vogtle expansion. (On Common Ground News)

CLIMATE:
• West Virginia lawmakers advance legislation to allow the state treasurer to withdraw from banking contracts with firms that limit or refuse to fund fossil fuel companies. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• An executive with investment firm BlackRock backpedaled on its CEO’s commitment to clean energy in a meeting with a Texas regulator, documents reveal. (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

CARBON CAPTURE: A Florida brewer and distiller announces it will install carbon-capture technology to reduce its carbon footprint. (Axios)

COMMENTARY: The University of Florida could save $115 million by relying on solar power and energy efficiency instead of building a new natural gas plant, write an engineer and climate scientist. (Gainesville Sun)

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.