OVERSIGHT:  Two Republican incumbents were leading in races for Georgia’s Public Service Commission with two of 159 precincts yet to report. See latest official results here.  (Rome News-Tribune)

ALSO:
• A Republican incumbent on Oklahoma’s three-member utilities commission was leading by a comfortable margin. See latest official results here. (Oklahoman)
• A Republican candidate had a sizable lead for Texas Railroad Commissioner in a race that attracted national attention due to its climate stakes. See latest official results here. (Texas Tribune)
• Voters approve a change to Jacksonville’s charter that will allow the Florida city’s council members to appoint and remove members from the city-owned electric utility’s board of directors. (WJXT)

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OIL & GAS:
• Louisiana voters approve a ballot measure to adjust property tax rates on oil and gas wells based on whether they’re in production. (S&P Global)
• Shell considers closing a Louisiana oil refinery if it can’t find a buyer, as the company moves forward with a plan to consolidate its refineries from 14 sites to six by 2025. (The Advocate)

PIPELINES:
• The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s parent company says the project will now cost $6 billion, significantly higher than the $3.8 billion estimated in 2018, and delays its projected in-service date until the second half of 2021. (Roanoke Times)
• The Appalachian Regional Commission approves $1.5 million for improvements at a southern Virginia business center, including completion of a natural gas pipeline. (Virginia Business)

WIND: The new leader of a coastal Virginia planning district names the state’s offshore wind industry as one of her priorities. (Smithfield Times)

SOLAR:
• Florida regulators approve a 60 MW solar farm proposed by a Tampa utility. (News Service of Florida)
• Supervisors in a Mississippi county approve tax incentives for a $60 million solar project. (The Dispatch)

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TRANSITION: Texas’ “advanced energy” sector — which includes wind, solar, storage, energy efficiency and nuclear — was growing at twice the rate of the state labor market before the pandemic, and is holding up better than oil and gas now. (Dallas Morning News)

UTILITIES:
• Appalachian Power seeks to acquire 210 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind power over the next five years as it angles to meet standards set by a Virginia clean energy law passed earlier this year. (Kingsport Times-News)
• The board of Jacksonville’s utility, the largest community-owned electric utility in Florida, selects a new CEO. (Jacksonville Daily Record)

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.