SOLAR: The South Carolina Solar Business Alliance is asking lawmakers to oppose bankrupt Suniva’s request for import tariffs on solar panels, saying it wouldn’t benefit manufacturers in the state while also “wiping out years of growth” in the industry. (Post and Courier)

ALSO:
• Duke Energy and state regulators grapple with how and when to release the full cost of solar projects. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• A solar co-op is helping West Virginia farmers cut costs for solar panel installation to subsequently reduce their overall energy costs. (Public News Service)

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ENERGY: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is considering requiring utilities to buy some electricity from coal-fired or nuclear power plants. (Blue Ridge Public Radio)

CLIMATE CHANGE:
• New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu released on Friday the Climate Action Strategy, in an effort to reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030. (Fox 8)
• A geologist and professor who has been researching coastal systems for more than 50 years will speak this week at a free public event on North Carolina’s rising sea levels. (Coastal Review Online)

UTILITIES:
• More workers have died during the last two decades at Tampa Electric’s power plants than at those run by any other Florida utility. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Appalachian Power Company’s president says its goal is to rely on 50 percent on coal and 50 percent on renewable energy. (MetroNews)
• Customers of Mississippi’s CenterPoint Energy will see a 3 percent increase on their monthly bills. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR:
• South Carolina’s legislation to extend a federal tax credit deadline for two troubled nuclear power projects would also benefit two lawmakers who are stockholders of the parent companies. (Post and Courier)
• Duke Energy Carolinas is considering including costs for its proposed Lee nuclear project its upcoming rate case. (Triangle Business Journal)
• With the fate of the Summer nuclear project in South Carolina still uncertain, local businesses that rely on income from the project’s construction workers are worried. (The State)

COAL ASH: Duke Energy Progress started burying coal ash from two unlined ash ponds in a new lined landfill at a shuttered plant in North Carolina. (Charlotte Business Journal)

COAL:
• Making sense of Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s “little economics lesson,” while visiting a coal plant in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• The annual West Virginia Coal Festival is a glimpse into the legacy of coal. (Washington Post)

COMMENTARY:
• A columnist says North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper should veto an energy bill because “a few gains for one renewable industry are not worth giving the bum’s rush to another.” (News & Record)
• A new education law in Florida will allow “the anti-science mob” to challenge climate change teachings in public schools. (Miami Herald)
• An environmentalist says “at a time when the federal government is looking backward, Virginia must lead” the fight against climate change. (Virginian-Pilot)
• The president of Strong Mountain Communities says royalties received by the owners of West Virginia’s coal and gas properties should stay in the state to boost the local economy. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)