BIOMASS: A $30 million collaboration between Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy is billed as the largest swine waste-to-energy project in North Carolina, but its details have been kept secret, even from state regulators. (NC Policy Watch)
UTILITIES: Spurred by a state law, Appalachian Power expects to add 210 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind by 2025, and thousands more megawatts of renewables and storage by 2050. (Roanoke Times)
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SOLAR:
• A Virginia county’s planning commission recommends that supervisors deny a permit for a 1,000-acre, 149 MW solar farm because it’s too large, even as the county considers adding another layer of permitting for solar projects. (Culpeper Times, Culpeper Star-Exponent)
• Texas county commissioners approve a tax abatement for a 200 MW solar farm. (Corsicana Daily Sun)
• A southwestern Virginia county obtains a state-recognized certification for removing unnecessary permitting and zoning barriers to solar projects. (Roanoke Times)
WIND: Texas and Oklahoma drive what looks to be a record-breaking year nationally for growth in wind generating capacity. (Renewables Now)
COAL:
• American Electric Power says it will retire one Texas coal-fired plant and shift another from coal. (Westside Eagle Observer)
• Xcel Energy announces it will convert a Texas coal-fired power plant to natural gas by 2025. (Amarillo Globe-News)
OIL & GAS:
• The American Petroleum Institute’s executive director tells a Texas energy symposium that the 2020 congressional elections represent “an overwhelming victory” for the oil and gas industry. (Beaumont Enterprise)
• An Oklahoma-based natural gas company files for reorganizational bankruptcy after struggling to remain afloat even before the pandemic. (Bloomberg)
• A decommissioned oil rig is being converted into the tallest artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico. (New Orleans Advocate)
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators fine the Tennessee Valley Authority $900,000 and cite three staffers for violating procedures at a Tennessee nuclear plant and then misleading investigators. (Associated Press)
COAL ASH: Georgia lawmakers will reintroduce a bill to require coal ash to be stored in lined landfills as residents allege that a Georgia Power pond is polluting their drinking water. (Capitol Beat News Service/Albany Herald)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s board passes initiatives to support electric vehicle charging stations after General Motors and Volkswagen announce major electric vehicles manufacturing investments. (WBIR)
• Georgia Power installs two new electric vehicle charging stations, bringing its total to 46 across the state. (Tifton Gazette)
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CLIMATE: A Virginia Tech climate task force calls for the university to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and eliminate fossil fuels and carbon offsets by 2050. (Roanoke Times)
COMMENTARY:
• A Louisiana environmental journalist details the underlying factors beneath the governor’s shift to focus on wind energy over the long-dominant oil and gas industry. (New Orleans Advocate)
• The energy sector’s shift from coal should serve as a warning to West Virginia leaders, writes a Huntington newspaper. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• The former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates calls on the state not to join an interstate transportation compact that would impose a regional carbon fuels tax. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)