SOLAR: Duke Energy and solar advocates announce a net-metering agreement in North Carolina that includes time-varying solar rates to create more pathways to rooftop solar adoption and EV charging, and incentives for residential customers to invest in smart thermostats, battery storage and more. (WFAE, Canary Media, Utility Dive)

GRID:
• Texas’ grid manager says most of the state’s power plants required to file winter weather preparedness reports did so by the Dec. 1 deadline. (KHOU)
• Polls find that four out of five Texans do not believe the state legislature has done enough to safeguard against cold-weather grid catastrophe. (KRIV)
• After a near-failure in February’s winter storm, the Texas grid will be tested as a greater number of electric vehicles come online and plug in. (Dallas Morning News)
• Texas regulators adopt a new rule to increase coordination between the electric and gas industries during emergencies by creating a new designation for critical natural gas facilities. (Palestine Herald-Press)

EMISSIONS: Louisville Gas & Electric Co. agrees with the U.S. Justice Department to pay a $750,000 penalty and permanently limit sulfuric acid mist emissions from a coal-fired power plant in Kentucky. (Associated Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric car maker Tesla files formal paperwork to move its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. (Newsweek)
• More paperwork indicates a corporation — perhaps Toyota — intends to build a battery-manufacturing plant at a sprawling megasite in North Carolina. (Greensboro News & Record)

PIPELINES: Southern Virginia residents and anti-pipeline activists prepare for a public hearing on an air quality permit for a compressor station on the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Appalachian Voices)

COAL: American Electric Power and Louisiana officials meet to discuss the impending closure of a coal-fired power plant and mine that supplies it. (KTBS)

UTILITIES: Oklahoma regulators approve a settlement for a small rate increase for Oklahoma Natural Gas. (KJRH)

NUCLEAR: U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito of West Virginia urges President Joe Biden to include nuclear power in his policies promoting clean energy. (WV Metro News)

CLIMATE: Louisiana officials urge residents to demolish damaged buildings as they try to determine eligibility for federal help in a community where Hurricane Ida destroyed one in four structures. (NOLA.com)

COMMENTARY:
• A net-metering agreement with Duke Energy in North Carolina will benefit consumers and strengthen the grid, writes a coalition of environmental and clean energy groups. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
• An editorial board hails the use of American Rescue Plan funding to invest in coal communities. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
• The longtime coal-producing counties of southern West Virginia have become a national center for off-roading with the growth of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, writes a columnist. (Elkin Tribune)

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Mason Adams

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.