VIRGINIA:
• Dominion Energy gave $200,000 to a Democrat-tied political action committee that purchased ads attacking the Republican candidate for governor as weak on gun rights in parts of rural Virginia. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Anti-pipeline protesters interrupt a speech by Jill Biden at a Democratic campaign rally in Virginia over candidate Terry McAuliffe’s previous support for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (WAVY)

SOLAR:
• The University of Kentucky will source about a third of its power from a 125 MW solar farm that’s expected to be completed in 2025. (Associated Press)
• After two devastating hurricanes, advocates call for Puerto Rico to use solar power to replace electricity generated from expensive fossil fuels that have blighted neighborhoods. (Guardian)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Kentucky officials, researchers and others look to Ford’s $5.8 billion investment in electric cars and batteries to attract additional companies to build out the EV supply chain. (WDRB) 

OIL & GAS:
• The oil and gas industry contributed $400,000 to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in the third quarter — a fourth of his total $1.6 million haul for the period — as the Democrat opposes environmental provisions of his party’s proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill. (Bloomberg, New York Magazine)
• Climate activists in Tampa, Florida, criticize TECO Energy’s plan to raise rates for customers by 14% in part to pay to convert a generating unit from coal to natural gas. (WUSF)

NUCLEAR: Georgia regulators appear likely to approve a rate increase for Georgia Power customers to support the first of two nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle. (Associated Press)

GRID:
• The director of an Arkansas municipal utility complains the city is losing lineworkers to higher-paying contract work in other states, leaving a shortage of skilled workers to make repairs to the grid as energy demand rises. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• An SUV slams into a utility pole in Texas, knocking out power for hundreds of Entergy customers. (KBTX, KXXV)

COAL:
• A West Virginia official eyes piles of coal waste throughout the state as potential sources of rare earth elements for use in making electronics. (WV Metro News)
• A coal-fired power plant is imploded in Texas, with remediation work on the landfill and ash ponds to follow. (The Eagle)

CLIMATE:
• While U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin opposes clean energy measures in the Democrats’ budget bill, new data shows his home state of West Virginia is more exposed to climate-driven flood damage than anywhere else in the contiguous U.S. (New York Times)
• Austin, Texas’ city council approves a resolution advancing flood mitigation, response and insurance initiatives. (Austin Monitor)

COMMENTARY:
• South Carolina’s questionable legal environment around utilities contributed to the $9 billion Santee Cooper debacle and last week’s criminal trial of its former CEO, writes an editorial board. (Post and Courier)
• A former Texas regulator calls for the U.S. EPA to manage emissions from flares, storage tanks, and other oil and gas equipment. (Austin American-Statesman)

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.