SOLAR:
• Brewers in western North Carolina are using peer pressure to persuade minds about solar and renewable energy. (Mother Nature Network)
• Here’s how the national solar lobby succeeded in persuading Congress to extend the Investment Tax Credit to 2022. (Greentech Media)
• Georgia and California are taking drastically different approaches to solar power. (National Public Radio)

POLICY: A regulator friendly to solar energy is expected to chair Mississippi’s utility commission. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)

CLEAN POWER PLAN:
• Florida Power & Light calls on state regulators to set rates that will pay for cleaner power generation and allow it to sell possible emission credits. (Platts)
• Virginia’s utility commission is challenging Dominion Virginia Power over its plan to reduce CO2 emissions, including its projected $19 billion cost for a fifth nuclear reactor. (Bacon’s Rebellion blog)
• Health advocates in North Carolina blast the state’s response thus far to crafting its compliance plan. (Coastal Review Online)
• North Carolina holds its final hearing today on how it can comply with the plan. (Public News Service)

COAL: State officials are investigating a coal mine accident that killed a worker in southern West Virginia. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Representatives from utilities in Florida present perspectives on EV programs in their service territories. (EV Obsession blog)
• Science students in Bentonville, Arkansas are retrofitting a gas-powered Chevy to run on electricity for the national EV Challenge in North Carolina in April. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

WIND:
• GE turns to a job fair to find operators qualified to work at its wind turbine manufacturing plant in Pensacola. (WEAR-TV)
• The federal government is holding public hearings beginning today in Charleston, South Carolina to gauge industry interest in wind energy off the state’s coast. (Associated Press)
• Florida-based Gulf Power begins operating its first wind energy system this week. (Crestview News Bulletin)

SUSTAINABILITY:
• A regional sustainability program centered around Memphis includes solar systems installed by prison inmates. (Memphis Flyer)
• A newly renovated county building in Wilmington, North Carolina is equipped with a green roof that decreases energy costs and extends its lifespan. (Port City Daily)

BIOENERGY:
• A Greensboro, North Carolina-based company is working with a biomass joint venture to make bedding for poultry farms. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• A Charlotte-based anaerobic digestion and renewable energy developer closes a $3 million round of financing to continue acquisitions. (Waste Management World)

CLIMATE: Some of Jacksonville, Florida’s signature real estate could be underwater if projected sea-level rise occurs. (Florida Times-Union)

COAL ASH:
• Criticism heats up over Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to release water from coal ash ponds into the Potomac River. (Public News Service)
• A South Carolina county rejects a company’s plans to dump coal ash into a local landfill. (WCSC-TV)
• North Carolina has yet to issue Duke Energy the required permits to clean up coal ash ponds at the site of a 2014 ash spill along the Dan River. (The Roanoke Times)

UTILITIES: Duke Energy is nearing approval of a proposed 280-megawatt gas-fired power plant in North Carolina. (Hendersonville Lightning)

OIL & GAS:
• An oil operator in Louisiana files for bankruptcy. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
• The company responsible for a decade-old leak in the Gulf of Mexico is set to hold a public meeting this month about its efforts to stop slicks off Louisiana’s coast. (Associated Press)

2010 GULF OIL SPILL: In an interview, the CEO of BP recounts the spill as a “near-death experience.” (BBC)

PIPELINES:
• Backers claim thousands of jobs in West Virginia are at stake over federal approval of proposed pipelines. (Logan Banner)
• Roanoke Gas seeks to tap into the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia. (The Roanoke Times)

COMMENTARY:
• Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia struggle to deal with growing drug addiction tied to the loss of coal-mining jobs. (Forbes)
• Biomass energy deserves a closer look in South Carolina. (Greenville Online)
• Virginia loves nuclear but hates uranium. Why? (The Energy Collective)