OIL & GAS: A new report shows that jobs in fracking-intensive counties in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania grew at less than a fifth of the national average, calling into question the robust growth predicted a decade ago. (Ohio River Valley Institute, Inside Climate News)

ALSO:
• An oil company plans a $20 million oil export terminal with railroad service, massive oil tanks and underground pipelines over two historic slave cemeteries at Louisiana’s St. Rosalie Plantation. (WWL-TV)
• In one of the sunniest, most solar-friendly regions in the country, El Paso Electric proposes upgrades for a natural gas plant that regulators say will be obsolete by 2045. (Texas Observer)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• San Antonio contracts with Blink Charging to install more than 140 electric vehicle chargers at 32 city-owned sites. (San Antonio Express News)
• Alabama awards a quarter-million-dollar grant to a growing company that will support Mercedes-Benz’s plan to make electric vehicles. (WBRC)
• An electric-vehicle battery manufacturer announces plans to build a new factory in Tennessee. (WKRN)
• A Spanish company that makes axle components for Volkswagen’s electric cars will open a new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Associated Press)
• Savannah, Georgia, considers a partnership with Georgia Power to build more charging stations across the city. (WTOC)

STORAGE:
• A Texas company proposes building a 600 MW battery storage facility at a former power plant site in Morro Bay that would be the world’s largest utility-scale battery storage facility. (Paso Robles Daily News)
• The U.S. International Trade Commission issues a 10-year ban on imports by a South Korea battery maker currently building a Georgia factory, but will temporarily allow it to continue to supply components for Ford and Volkswagen electric vehicles. (WAGA, Reuters)

EFFICIENCY: A Florida lawmaker proposes reforming a state financing program to help homeowners pay for energy efficiency and storm hardening upgrades. (Florida Politics)

POLITICS:
• Seventeen Democrats launch a climate, environment and energy caucus in the Texas state legislature. (Texas Tribune)
• Nine of the 15 mayoral candidates in Chattanooga endorse a sustainability plan developed by environmental, community and business leaders that includes sweeping energy goals. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Georgia lawmakers advance a bill to prohibit localities from adopting building codes with restrictions on fossil fuels or energy sources. (Albany Herald)

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.