COAL ASH:
• Tennessee’s Attorney General demands the TVA hand over data showing the contamination of a river that feeds Nashville’s water supply. (The Tennessean, Southern Environmental Law Center)
• An environmental group urges a Georgia county to halt the expansion of coal ash disposal there. (WTOC)
MICROGRIDS: Two microgrid projects sprout in Virginia following a trail blazed by a dairy plant that was financially vulnerable to power outages. (Southeast Energy News)
POLICY: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia praises President-elect Trump’s pick to run the EPA. (The Hill)
COAL:
• Watch to see what 30 years of mountaintop removal for mining coal looks like in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• Miners in southwest Virginia worry whether they will received needed health insurance benefits. (WCYB)
• A job fair for open “black hat” mining jobs draws more than 200 in Princeton, West Virginia. (WVVA)
OFFSHORE DRILLING: Authorities are investigating the case of a Renaissance Offshore platform fire off the Louisiana coast during which all four workers aboard were rescued. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
PIPELINE: Buckingham County, Virginia approves a compressor station for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
SOLAR: With a tax break in hand, a developer announces two large solar farms in South Carolina. (T&D)
UTILITIES: The TVA outlines steps it takes around the clock to protect against cyber attacks. (The News Courier)
NATURAL GAS: Most of the liquefied natural gas exports out of Sabine Pass, Louisiana went to Latin America, not Asia as predicted. (POWER Magazine)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A community college in North Carolina boosts its number of charging stations to six. (Wake Tech Newsroom)
COMMENTARY:
• How regulators are allowing cost overruns by Georgia Power for two new nuclear reactors is the latest evidence of a “big gap” regulating a powerful monopoly. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A “rebel south” alliance of indigenous tribes in Florida rises up to protest the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. (IntercontinenalCry.org)
• With his pick to head North Carolina’s Dept. of Environmental Quality, Gov. Roy Cooper shows he’s serious about protecting the state’s air and water. (Fayetteville Observer)
• The former head of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality who demoted himself to keep a job should be fired. (WRAL)