UTILITIES: Texas lawmakers draw close to approving roughly $7 billion in ratepayer-backed bonds to deal with the financial fallout from February’s winter storm. (Texas Tribune)
ALSO:
• Energy industry observers are surprised at Dominion Energy’s withdrawal of its Virginia resources from PJM’s regional electricity market over a federal order making it difficult for renewables to compete against fossil fuels. (Virginia Mercury)
• The CEO of San Antonio’s city-owned electric utility says a rate increase “is an inevitability” that could come later this fall. (San Antonio Report)
• A Democratic objection kills a Texas state bill targeting Austin that would have given large retail customers five years to appeal city-charged electric rates. (Austin American-Statesman)
GRID:
• Texas lawmakers near agreement on energy reforms after February’s winter storm, but neither Republican-controlled chamber shows support for requiring natural gas suppliers to prepare for extreme cold. (Houston Chronicle)
• Experts say avoiding another Texas grid disaster will require rethinking its market-driven system that favors efficiency and lower prices over reliability. (Houston Chronicle)
OIL & GAS:
• A startup company that says Royal Dutch Shell rebuffed its $1 billion offer for a Gulf Coast refinery now wants to build a stand-alone refinery for $2 billion. (The Advocate)
• The United Steelworkers and ExxonMobil dispute a contract at a Beaumont, Texas, oil refinery as the broader oil and gas industry moves to cut labor costs. (In These Times)
• A Tennessee lawmaker and local official say they’ll press for noise mitigation at a bitcoin-mining site that’s generated complaints from nearby residents. (WREG, Johnson City Press)
COAL: West Virginia regulators approve renewal of a permit for a steep-slope surface mine despite concerns over its environmental and health effects. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
SOLAR:
• An Arkansas city completes the first phase of a solar project to provide 80% of its municipal power but struggles with obstacles that have set back the project’s next steps. (Press Argus-Courier)
• The Choctaw Nation hires a company to install solar arrays for 20 homes in an Oklahoma community. (KOCO)
TRANSITION:
• A Kentucky coal miner and a South Carolina pastor of a Black church connect over leading their communities to wrestle the climate issues of environmental justice and just transition. (CBS News)
• Virginia’s energy agency opens comments for a legislative initiative to diversify the economy of the state’s coalfields after lawmakers repealed key coal tax credits. (Kingsport Times News)
• West Virginia lawmakers balk at the International Energy Agency’s call for investors not to fund any new coal, oil or natural gas projects to reach emissions reduction goals. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
NUCLEAR: A former official who helped oversee the construction of a now-abandoned $9 billion South Carolina nuclear plant pleads guilty to lying to a federal agent in a multi-year criminal investigation. (Post and Courier, subscription; News & Observer)
EMISSIONS:
• City officials in Bristol, Virginia, struggle to monitor and repair a gas leak and concentrations of benzene at a landfill. (Bristol Herald Courier)
• An eastern Kentucky oil refinery emits benzene at levels that jumped 233% from 2019 to 2020, arriving at 11% above the EPA action level. (WMKY)
COMMENTARY:
• Ford’s electric F-150 could push electric vehicles from a curiosity on West Virginia roads into widespread use, writes an editorial board. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan looks like a lot like a down payment on the debt owed to West Virginia for fueling the United States’ global rise as a superpower, writes a newspaper editorial. (Beckley Register-Herald)
• The onus for calling for coal communities to move away from fossil fuels toward clean energy falls on mayors and other local leaders, writes a Virginia editorial board. (Roanoke Times)
• Three recent events — Texas’ storm-driven grid shutdown, the Colonial Pipeline hack and a bridge crack found over the Mississippi River — show vulnerabilities in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, write a team of reporters. (Bloomberg)