CLIMATE: Virginia netted $74.2 million for flood protection and low-income energy efficiency programs from its regional carbon-trading market’s first auction of 2022, but its governor still seeks to withdraw from the program. (Virginia Mercury)

ALSO: A Tennessee family contemplates whether to rebuild or relocate after flooding devastates their house — a dilemma many victims of two dozen climate-driven extreme weather events in 2021 face as well. (NPR)

RENEWABLES:
• Rising energy prices drive a surge in solar, electric vehicles and other clean-energy sectors in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
• Utility executives and clean energy developers tell attendees of a Houston conference that supply chain disruptions, inflation and bureaucratic regulations are slowing the development of renewable energy across the U.S. (E&E News)

WIND:
• A judge sends a state permit for a western Virginia wind farm back to the state environmental agency for more review, complicating plans to begin operations by next year. (Roanoke Times)
• Louisiana lawmakers consider a bill to give the state a share of the revenue from potential offshore wind operations, but critics say the proposal could make wind farms too expensive and push developers elsewhere. (NOLA.com) 

COAL: West Virginia lawmakers pass a bill to raise surface coal mine permit fees to increase funding for regulators. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

PIPELINES: Memphis, Tennessee, residents worry that legislation removing local control over pipelines could restart construction of the previously canceled Byhalia Connection pipeline. (WHBQ)

GRID: Federal officials blame a North Carolina company for failing to properly train two teenage apprentices who were electrocuted in August when they tried to restore power on a 7,200-volt electric distribution line in Alabama. (Charlotte Observer)

POLITICS:
• Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says he wants to use federal infrastructure funding to add electric vehicles to transit systems, build EV charging stations and plug abandoned oil and gas wells across the state. (NOLA.com)
• West Virginia’s governor dismisses climate change and describes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an “opportunity beyond belief” to boost the state’s coal, oil and gas production — a move the state’s congressional delegation supports. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• West Virginia lawmakers pass legislation to create a state insurance company for mining reclamation and develop a permitting system for underground carbon storage. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Tennessee official pushes a small, majority Black town to relinquish its charter as Ford prepares to build its electric vehicle and battery factory nearby. (Tennessee Lookout)

UTILITIES: The municipal utility in Little Rock, Arkansas, moves to pick up Entergy’s customers, distribution properties and facilities within an area that was annexed in 2020. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY:
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s failed appointment of a former Trump official to his cabinet set off a partisan chain reaction that’s spilled over into other appointments, writes an editorial board. (Washington Post)
• Texas lawmakers campaigning this year tout fixes to the state’s electric grid but failed to shore up the reliability of natural gas supplies for power plants, writes a columnist. (Texas Tribune)

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.