WIND: Climate-concerned conservationists and labor representatives who see an opportunity for jobs dominated the surprisingly positive public comments the federal government received about offshore wind near southeast North Carolina. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: North Carolina moves toward development of wind energy, but still lags Virginia and other states. (Raleigh News & Observer, subscription)

OVERSIGHT:
• The Virginia Senate votes along party lines to reject Trump administration EPA head Andrew Wheeler as the state’s secretary of natural and historic resources. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Washington Post)
• A Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate board advances a Republican proposal to strip two citizen environmental boards of their permitting power. (Virginia Mercury)
• Five members of Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors will meet in-person for the first time in two years today, as four more nominees remain held up in the U.S. Senate. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

MINING: West Virginia can receive $140 million and Kentucky $75 million of the $725 million in federal funding to clean up abandoned mines and drive economic growth in coal communities. (WV Metro News, WFPL)

OIL & GAS:
• Louisiana regulators approve a measure allowing cooperatives to buy power from out-of-state utilities, opening the door for construction of a 700 MW natural gas plant that will also be able to use hydrogen. (Plaquemine Post South)
• A Texas oil company announces it will build a carbon capture facility in southern Alabama and could extend its pipeline network from Mississippi to connect to it. (S&P Global)

SOLAR:
• Georgia residents complain about a solar company’s poor installation and service after purchasing rooftop arrays. (WAGA)
• Shell’s solar company chooses a contractor to build a 125 MW solar farm in Georgia. (Solar Industry)
• A Virginia county planning board approves a 2 MW solar facility. (Smithfield Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An advocacy group led by the Tennessee Valley Authority aims to grow the number of electric vehicles registered in Tennessee from 16,902 last year to 200,000 by 2028 as a fast-charger manufacturer locates in the state. (Nashville Business Journal, subscription; Tennessee Lookout)

GRID:
• About 45,000 households in Memphis, Tennessee, remained without power Tuesday after an ice storm a week ago, but the city utility projects power will be fully restored by Friday. (Commercial Appeal)
• Despite new regulators and policy reform, experts say the Texas grid remains susceptible to weather-induced blackouts, and last week’s storm wasn’t much of a test. (Texas Monthly, Texas Tribune)

CLIMATE: Advocates cheer Florida’s plans to get 100% of its power from renewable energy by 2050, but the power to require utilities make changes falls to a board that’s been lackadaisical about pressing for renewables or energy efficiency. (Miami Herald)

NUCLEAR: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signs into law a measure rolling back the state’s prohibition on nuclear power plant construction. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, Parkersburg News and Sentinel)

POLITICS: The reliability of the Texas power grid becomes a pivotal issue in its 2022 race for governor, while energy remains a smaller factor in closely watched races in Florida and Georgia. (E&E News)

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.