UTILITIES: Some of the Southeast’s biggest utilities file plans with federal regulators for an automated energy exchange to allow them to more easily share excess capacity and better integrate renewable energy. (Greentech Media)

ALSO:
• A speechwriter for Dominion Energy contributed to unsigned editorials about the utility that ran in two eastern Virginia newspapers. (VPM)
• The cities of Louisville and Lexington express concern to Kentucky regulators about a requested rate increase by Kentucky Utilities and its likely effects on their residents during the pandemic. (WTVQ) 

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COAL ASH: The clean-up after a 2008 coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of illnesses among workers exposed to radioactive materials and other toxins. (Daily Yonder/Grist)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Mercedes-Benz announces six new electric vehicles, including two SUVs that will be built in an Alabama plant. (Forbes)
• The maker of a three-wheeled electric vehicle expands its sales territory, previously confined to the West Coast, to Florida. (Portland Business Journal)
• San Antonio’s city council delays approval of a contract with a company to build 100 electric vehicle chargers due to legal and quality control concerns. (San Antonio Business Journal)

WIND: Avangrid submits plans for the first phase of an offshore wind development it says will create $2 billion in economic impact and nearly 800 jobs in Virginia and North Carolina. (Virginia Business)

OIL & GAS:
• A Louisiana congressman credits natural gas for reduced carbon emissions and says there’s “no possible way” that Congress will vote to end new oil leases on federal lands and waters. (Houma Today)
• The federal government revises its estimates to reveal that nearly 60,000 oil and gas workers lost their jobs between February and August — 10,000 more than previously reported. (Beaumont Enterprise)
• Environmental justice advocates decry a Virginia air board’s approval of a 17 MW natural gas power plant for the U.S. Navy. (Chesapeake Bay Journal)
• A natural gas line release near Saluda Dam coincided with an earthquake to rattle residents around Columbia, South Carolina, on Friday night. (Post and Courier)
• A company repairs a natural gas leak on an offshore platform near Corpus Christi, Texas. (KRIS)
• West Virginia officials investigate an oil spill and fish kill at Lake Chaweva. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

SOLAR:
• A Texas county votes to hire a consultant to assist in its consideration of a tax abatement for a proposed 300 MW solar project. (Brownwood Bulletin)
• An electricity cooperative in the Florida Keys pursues residential solar development for its members. (WLRN)
• A California firm proposes a 100 MW solar farm in northern Mississippi. (Memphis Business Journal)

NUCLEAR: Georgia Power receives its first shipment of nuclear fuel for a new reactor at Plant Vogtle, and tests the turbine system on one of the two new units. (WALB, Augusta Chronicle)

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BIOGAS: Construction begins on Florida’s first project to convert methane from a municipal landfill to renewable natural gas. (Environment + Energy Leader)

COMMENTARY:
• As Texas’ oil and gas industry struggles, the state should take the opportunity to become a national leader in solar power and hydrogen-based energy storage, writes a journalist. (OilPrice.com)
• Virginia’s sweeping clean energy law will also help low-income residents with their electric bills, write two environmental and energy advocates. (Virginia Mercury)

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.