GRID: The interim president of Texas’ grid manager wants regulators to require power generators improve backup systems, revamp pricing rules to encourage reliability, and even consider an overhaul of the state’s power market. (Houston Chronicle)

CLIMATE: Florida officials investigating the collapse of the Champlain Tower South condominium will weigh whether harsher conditions from climate change played a role. (WLRN)

PIPELINES:
• Berkshire Hathaway drops a plan to purchase a pipeline from Dominion Energy for $1.3 billion because it’s uncertain whether the deal could get regulatory approval. (Associated Press)
• The Mountain Valley Pipeline will buy more than $150 million in carbon offsets generated by a methane abatement program at a coal mine in Southwest Virginia, spurring allegations of greenwashing. (Roanoke Times; E&E News, subscription)

OIL & GAS:
• An oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands files for bankruptcy due to cost overruns and regulatory trouble, including a forced shutdown in May over fires and noxious gas releases. (Reuters)
• A Texas natural gas marketer sues Chevron for $85 million for failing to make natural gas deliveries during February’s winter storm. (Reuters)
• Traders and pipeline companies in Texas’ lightly regulated natural gas market made up to $11 billion over nine days during February’s winter storm. (Bloomberg)
• Duke Energy says switching a western North Carolina plant from coal to natural gas is producing energy more efficiently and has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 60% per megawatt hour. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

CARBON:
• Texas and U.S. policymakers need to do more to shift away from oil to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to a new report. (San Antonio Express-News)
• A company builds what could be the world’s first large-scale direct air capture plant in Texas’ Permian Basin as it seeks to transition from oil production to carbon management. (S&P Global)

OVERSIGHT:
• North Carolina regulators consider placing a cap on carbon emissions from the power sector that will reach net-zero by 2050. (WFAE)
• Alabama regulators permit Alabama Power to seal coal ash in place at a power plant despite concerns it may pollute groundwater. (AL.com) 

UTILITIES: Tennessee families criticize the Tennessee Valley Authority for its attempt to use eminent domain to take land for a transmission line upgrade. (WATE)

SOLAR:
• A northwest Florida couple purchases the region’s first Tesla solar roof. (WTLV)
• A county zoning board approves a solar farm in Tennessee. (Times Gazette, subscription)

WORKFORCE: A natural gas company partners with a West Virginia college to recruit and train high-school graduates to become gas technicians in anticipation of a surge in demand. (WV Metro News)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: The director of a solar energy loan fund touts solar and energy efficiency programs for low-income homeowners. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

COMMENTARY:
• Louisiana can’t protect the oil industry from the federal government, but it has shielded the industry from state residents who want it held accountable for environmental damage, writes an editor. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• Texas should shore up its grid reliability by aggressively managing electricity demand and not just throwing money at supply-side measures, writes a former state and federal regulator. (Utility Dive)

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.