POLITICS: Hundreds of millions of dollars promised by North Carolina politicians to help low-income ratepayers fail to materialize in the state budget. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• North Carolina lawmakers pass a bill to prohibit local governments from barring energy service based on its fuel type, such as natural gas. (Associated Press)
• A challenger running against a Texas Congress member in a Democratic primary spotlights the incumbent’s donations from the oil and gas industry as an impediment to fighting climate change. (Washington Post)

COAL ASH: Tennessee regulators sign off on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to move coal ash from ponds in Southwest Memphis and through predominantly Black neighborhoods to bury it in lined pits in a city landfill. (Commercial Appeal)

GRID:
• Clean energy advocates worry regulatory changes in Texas could drive up wind and solar costs without solving problems tied to natural gas and other resources that led to blackouts after February’s winter storm. (E&E News, subscription)
• The deadline nears for Texas power plants to submit their winterization plans to the state’s grid manager. (KPRC)
• Power is restored after an outage left thousands of Georgians without power over Thanksgiving. (WMGT)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Alabama launches a campaign to promote electric vehicles based around its growing charging network, although the governor quips, “My Mercedes is still in good shape.” (Associated Press)
• Louisiana’s tourism industry eyes electric vehicle infrastructure as a way to attract visitors as it rebuilds from the pandemic. (WAFB)
• Tennessee officials embrace electric vehicle manufacturing investments but warily eye EVs’ effect on gas tax revenues. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

SOLAR: Schools, a water authority and other entities in Arkansas share energy from solar arrays built by Entergy. (Arkansas Business)

RENEWABLES: Texas farmers and ranchers embrace wind and solar as a way to make agricultural operations more sustainable and deliver steady, reliable income in an uncertain industry. (Financial Times)

OIL & GAS:
• The oil and gas industry’s growth frustrates residents upset with noise from drilling operations in a Louisiana parish. (KSLA)
• Protesters oppose a new natural gas plant under consideration at the University of Florida. (WCJB)

CLIMATE: A new study warns climate change makes Louisiana and Florida’s west coast increasingly prone to back-to-back tropical storms. (NOLA.com)

OVERSIGHT: Georgia regulators fine a Korean logistics company $3 million for a 2019 shipwreck that leaked oil into the sea and coastal salt marshes. (Georgia Recorder)

BIOFUELS: Two companies announce construction of a Texas production facility to make biomethane from livestock manure. (news release)

EMISSIONS: A study finds diesel truck routes expose low-income people of color to 28% more nitrogen oxide than their wealthier white counterparts. (Environmental Health News)

HYDRO: A Kentucky college completes a 2.6 MW plant to become the first college in the U.S. to build a hydropower project. (WDKY)

COMMENTARY: CenterPoint Energy plans to spend $1.7 billion adding 800 miles of new gas pipeline annually despite its pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2035, writes a policy analyst. (Energy and Policy Institute)

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.