TRANSITION: The Nature Conservancy builds six utility-scale solar facilities on coal mines in Southwest Virginia, creating what it hopes is a replicable national model for abandoned mineland. (Washington Post)

ALSO: A West Virginia businessman announces a new aquaculture company to grow salmon using water from abandoned coal mines. (Beckley Register-Herald)

CLIMATE:
• A United Nations report details the numerous ways in which climate change will affect Louisiana and other states along the Gulf of Mexico, predicting an average temperature rise of as much as 12 degrees and several feet of sea level rise. (WWNO, Associated Press)
• A federal report identifies North Carolina facilities that supply drinking water among dozens of vulnerable operations that are at risk from natural disasters fueled by climate change. (Winston-Salem Journal)

SOLAR: A Midwest grocery store chain signs an agreement with Duke Energy to purchase power from a Texas solar plant under construction. (WJRT)

PIPELINES: U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and other senators grill federal regulators about delays to the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other projects, although opponents dispute Manchin’s assertion that the project is nearly complete. (WDBJ)

GRID: Texas’ grid operator and its largest electric cooperative agree to enter mediation over a nearly $2 billion bill stemming from last year’s winter storm. (Reuters)

NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority shuts down a 1,150 MW reactor in Tennessee to install four replacement steam generators in its biggest nuclear refueling and maintenance outage in nearly a decade. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Japan’s Panasonic Corp. eyes Oklahoma and Kansas for an electric vehicle battery factory to supply Tesla’s planned Texas factory. (Reuters)
• A North Carolina town on the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation reservation purchases its first electric school bus. (One Feather)
• Tennessee maps future electric vehicle charger sites as its auto manufacturing sector gears up for significant EV growth. (WTVF) 

BIOGAS:
• Chevron purchases a biodiesel manufacturer currently expanding a plant in Louisiana that, when complete, will supply half of Chevron’s renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel targets. (S&P Global)
• A Virginia company signs a deal with a North Carolina landfill to pursue development of renewable natural gas. (Carteret County News-Times)

UTILITIES: Kentucky residents complain about skyrocketing winter power bills. (WDKY)

POLITICS: U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia introduces a bill to block imports of Russian fossil fuels that’s attracting bipartisan support in Congress. (WV MetroNews, E&E News)

COMMENTARY:
• North Carolina must leverage a mix of natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy to meet the power needs of its rapidly growing population, writes a columnist. (Reflector)
• A columnist recounts a recent Florida protest in which residents invoked a legendary 11-foot-2-inch alligator to turn back a gas station’s efforts to build over a historic spring. (Florida Phoenix)

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.