HURRICANE IDA: Entergy New Orleans predicts it could begin restoring power to the city as early as this afternoon, although numerous downed lines will delay its work. (NOLA.com, New York Times)

ALSO:
• Early reports to state and federal officials confirm numerous releases of oil and a variety of chemicals in southeastern Louisiana on the day before and the day of Hurricane Ida’s arrival. (NOLA.com)
• Louisiana’s energy sector creeps back to life as oil companies begin restarting refineries and key fuel pipelines reopen. (Associated Press)
• Two Louisiana ports that play key roles in offshore oil and gas production and crude oil exports begin recovery after sustaining damages from Hurricane Ida. (S&P Global)

GRID:
• The outages triggered by Hurricane Ida raise questions about Entergy’s hurricane preparedness since it recently completed a $100 million grid upgrade. (Washington Post)
• The U.S. Coast Guard hasn’t yet assessed how to respond to a toppled transmission tower that left an electrical line conductor in the Mississippi River. (Reuters)

UTILITIES:
• An Alabama electric cooperative that had petitioned the federal government to force the Tennessee Valley Authority to grant open access for cheaper energy switches course and begins a new 20-year agreement with the utility. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• The CEO of Entergy Texas announces her retirement after 37 years with the company and nine years as its top executive. (Beaumont Enterprise)
• Two Pike Electric workers contracted with Alabama Power are killed while working on storm restoration. (Associated Press)

OIL & GAS:
• President Joe Biden’s administration announces it will open 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and potentially hundreds of thousands more onshore for oil and gas exploration as it seeks to comply with a court order. (Reuters)
• A rail yard terminal in Texas reports a 1,000-gallon crude oil spill from a rail car that went undetected for about 44 hours. (Beaumont Enterprise)

SOLAR:
• Mississippi sees a solar boomlet as several companies seek regulatory approval for projects ranging between 96 MW and 200 MW. (Delta Democrat-Times)
• Florida residents respond positively to Duke Energy’s plan to build a 75 MW solar facility. (WCJB)
• A Tennessee company announces the completion of a 418 MW solar farm in Texas. (news release)

COAL:
• Virginia regulators work to fix erosion from a coal mine that has covered a nearby road with several feet of debris. (Kingsport Times News)
• The coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice end a legal squabble with Carter Bank and Trust. (WV News)

EMISSIONS: Motorists in a middle Tennessee county grow frustrated with a vehicle emissions program that will be limited only to their county after several surrounding counties drop out of the voluntary program. (Tennessee Lookout)

WIND: Arkansas prosecutors rest after presenting their case against two men charged with defrauding investors in a failed wind farm deal. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY: Florida utilities should encourage rooftop and community solar to facilitate clean energy, keep energy supplies close to the consumer and avoid the build-out of additional transmission lines, writes a solar advocate. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

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.