ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nissan announces it will invest half a billion dollars into a Mississippi plant that will start making two new electric vehicle models in 2025. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR:
• Paperwork problems delay construction of two new units at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle yet again, this time to 2023, with costs expected to more than double initial estimates. (Georgia Recorder, E&E News)
• West Virginia and other coal-producing states advance legislation to encourage development of small modular nuclear reactors to meet energy needs and fill an economic void left by closing power plants. (E&E News)

SOLAR: A Virginia nonprofit develops a program to install rooftop solar on homes built by Habitat for Humanity in exchange for work hours from future homeowners. (The Breeze)

GRID:
• Mississippi regulators recommend better communication, strengthening the grid, winterizing plants and exploring fuels other than natural gas after last year’s winter storm. (Mississippi Today)
• Thousands of Texans turn to solar power and battery storage in the wake of mass blackouts during last year’s winter storm. (Houston Chronicle)
• Texas death counts spiked in February 2021, suggesting the state is undercounting fatalities related to the winter storm that month. (Houston Chronicle)

EMISSIONS: A Florida chemical plant that leads the country in releasing nitrous oxide, which is fairly easily abated, falls behind in emissions reduction efforts. (Inside Climate News)

CLIMATE: Hundreds of Kentuckians displaced by tornadoes in December are still living in hotels, state lodges or homes in need of repair. (WKMS)

UTILITIES:
• North Carolina regulators codify changes to state law that allow utilities to seek multiyear rate plans and earn performance-based bonuses. (WFAE)
• Dominion Energy begins sending checks and applying refunds after Virginia regulators rule that it must return more than $330 million to ratepayers. (WSET)

PIPELINES:
• Federal regulators revamp their pipeline consideration process after court challenges of their approvals resulted in cancellation of and delays on numerous projects. (Bloomberg)
• Environmental groups celebrate the delay of a proposed Virginia pipeline after a power plant that would be its only end user is pulled from the regional grid’s planning queue. (Chesapeake Bay Journal)

COMMENTARY:
• West Virginia is just getting started with solar energy development, writes a worker for Solar Holler, which built out 25% of the state’s solar capacity last year alone. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Texas should continue to expand its energy economy by embracing innovations to make oil and gas cleaner, and investing in nuclear, clean energy, and carbon capture, write two policy analysts and former regulatory staffers. (Dallas Morning News)
• The director of Kentucky’s oil and gas trade association tracks how the state came to lead the U.S. in orphaned oil and natural gas wells, and how it plans to plug them. (Courier Journal)

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.