PIPELINES: Mountain Valley Pipeline opponents again take legal action to stop the project, asking a federal appeals court to review newly reissued permits for it to cross streams and wetlands in West Virginia and Virginia. (Roanoke Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Tampa Electric Co. asks state regulators to approve a four-year pilot program that would involve installing about 200 charging stations. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Georgia Power announces plans to electrify part of its vehicle fleet, including half of its light vehicles, forklifts and ATV/carts, by 2030. (news release)
SOLAR:
• As Virginia schools increasingly adopt solar power, a utility contract in Appalachian Power territory is getting in the way. (Virginia Mercury)
• Solar developers continue to build large projects to meet corporate clean energy demand, including a 315 MW project in Texas. (PV Magazine)
• A Southwest Arkansas electric cooperative unveils a completed solar array that will add about 2,250 MWh annually to its system. (Magnolia Reporter)
OIL & GAS:
• West Virginia University engineers receive a $3 million federal grant to develop a method for capturing emissions at shale gas production sites. (WVNews)
• Chevron is reducing production and laying off workers at its largest U.S. refinery in Mississippi due to falling demand. (Mississippi Business Journal)
COAL ASH: North Carolina regulators continue to investigate a sinkhole collapse at a parking lot built on coal ash deposit. (Record & Landmark)
UTILITIES:
• A Jacksonville committee investigating an attempt to sell the city’s municipal utility is given more time to complete its work. (Jacksonville Daily Record)
• Rising natural gas prices are increasing Xcel Energy bills in Texas, but a new wind farm is expected to bring prices back down next year. (KFDA)
• A Virginia municipal utility official says natural gas and solar additions to the grid have driven down electricity prices in recent years. (Danville Register & Bee)
TRANSPORTATION: University of Tennessee-Chattanooga researchers receive a $1.89 million federal grant to create an adaptive traffic control system for intersections that reduces fuel consumption. (Cities Today)
COMMENTARY:
• An analyst says information about a proposed regional electricity market has leaked out slowly in recent months. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
• Entergy’s plan to achieve “net-zero emissions” by 2050 would still rely on gas to generate as much as a quarter of its electric capacity. (Energy & Policy Institute)