EMISSIONS: Nearly 30% of the Permian Basin’s methane emissions come from“routinely persistent” leaks that could be largely eliminated with repairs and diligent monitoring, scientists say. (Bloomberg)

ALSO:
• Kinder Morgan’s CEO warns that converting pipelines to transport CO2 from carbon capture initiatives won’t be financially viable without new federal subsidies. (S&P Global)
• Conservation groups say North Carolina’s methodology for implementing a federal clean air rule ignores the state’s worst polluters. (Asheville Citizen-Times)
• Officials in Florida’s capital city share plans to achieve 100% net renewable energy by 2050 and switch all city operations and transit to renewables by 2035. (Tallahassee Democrat)

POLITICS:
• Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin appear together in West Virginia to tout the coal-heavy state’s role in the transition to clean energy, including use of its manufactured steel in a ship for building offshore wind turbines. (Associated Press, WV News)
• Minutes after the North Carolina state Senate rejected Gov. Roy Cooper’s choice to lead the state energy agency, the governor announces that he has hired her as state clean energy director. (WRAL)
• The Democratic primary for a Virginia state house seat becomes a proxy fight between Dominion Energy and anti-Dominion campaign funders. (WAVY)

GRID: Former Texas regulators release recommendations to protect residents and harden the grid, including how to jumpstart the grid in the event of a collapse. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Florida city officials hedge on signing up for a Florida Power & Light program to build electric chargers because they’re worried that charging up shouldn’t be free. (Punta Gorda Sun)
• Officials in a Tennessee school district announce the first electric school bus in the state. (WKRN)

UTILITIES:
• Texas regulators consider ending a moratorium on electricity disconnections for nonpayment implemented after February’s winter storm. (KPRC)
• West Virginia regulators consider Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power’s request for rate increases. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

SOLAR: A renewables company announces a 200 MW Kentucky solar farm with plans to begin operations by late 2023. (Messenger-Inquirer) 

COAL:
• TECO will retire two coal-fired units at its Big Bend Plant in Tampa Bay. (WFTS)
• A West Virginia coal miner is killed, the second in two days. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• Memphis needs to get serious about reducing the energy cost burden that disproportionately affects low income residents, writes a neighborhood preservation advocate. (Commercial Appeal)
• A newly launched coalition of Texas groups announces its goal of boosting carbon capture, use and underground storage technology to reduce emissions among fossil fuel producers. (Houston Chronicle)
• Corporate hog farms are using biogas projects to avoid converting to truly environmentally-friendly systems, writes a conservationist. (Fayetteville Observer)

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.