SOLAR:
• A new scorecard ranks Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee among the worst states for policies facilitating solar power. (CityLab)
• A Virginia firm wins a nearly $500 million contract to install a solar farm at a Texas army base. (Fort Hood Herald)
• Virginia middle school students petition their school board to pursue solar power. (Inside NoVa)

WIND: A Virginia county unanimously approves a permit for what could be the state’s first commercial wind farm. (Roanoke Times)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: A coalition of environmental and community leaders criticize a Virginia utility’s response to the Clean Power Plan as lawmakers consider a bill that would require legislative approval for any compliance plan. (Capital News Service)

COAL:
• Robert Murray wants the hearing date for his lawsuit against the EPA postponed so he can attend the GOP convention. (Huffington Post)
• Murray Energy says proposed cuts to West Virginia mining taxes don’t go far enough. (Associated Press)

COAL ASH: A North Carolina school district will spend $475,000 to remediate coal ash at its sports fields. (Wilmington Star-News)

FRACKING:
• A bill to establish a regulator framework for fracking moves through the Florida state senate despite opposition from environmentalists. (SaintPetersBlog)
• The Florida League of Cities drops its opposition to a bill prohibiting local drilling bans. (WUSF)
• Commissioners in a Florida county vote to ban fracking. (Sun-Sentinel)

OFFSHORE DRILLING: New protections for right whales off the Georgia and South Carolina coasts could make it more difficult to explore for oil and gas. (The State)

PIPELINES: Virginia lawmakers introduce two pipeline-related bills – one to seek state authority for approval of new natural gas pipelines and another to protect water resources. (Charlottesville Daily Progress)

UTILITES: Duke Energy faces pushback at a public hearing over plans to add a third generating unit to a proposed natural gas plant in western North Carolina. (Carolina Public Press)

WILDLIFE: Federal officials try to figure out how the potential loss of warm water discharges from Florida power plants will impact the recover of manatee populations. (Greenwire)

NUCLEAR: South Carolina’s governor orders the state’s attorney general to sue the Energy Department over delays at a nuclear processing facility. (Associated Press)

CLIMATE: Mayors of 15 Florida cities send a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio urging him to take climate change seriously. (Grist)

COMMENTARY:
• How opponents seek to prohibit wind farm development through regulation. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
• Renewable energy in North Carolina “is a gold mine that deserves strong support” from the legislature. (Fayetteville Observer)