WIND: Spain’s Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy will partner with Dominion Energy to build the U.S.’s first wind turbine blade factory in Virginia near a site where Dominion is building turbines for an offshore wind facility. (Associated Press, Reuters)

UTILITIES:
• Dominion Energy’s political contributions soar during Virginia’s 2021 elections to more than three times what the utility has typically given, and also break its past pattern of parity by giving Democratic candidates significantly more than Republicans. (Virginia Mercury)
• San Antonio’s municipal electric utility receives an A-plus rating but a negative outlook from a credit rating agency stemming from uncertainty about progress on winterization. (San Antonio Report)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Kentucky vies with Alabama, Texas, Indiana and Missouri to land a Toyota automotive plant that will make electric vehicle batteries. (Paducah Sun)

NUCLEAR: Georgia Power again delays the start date of two new units at its Plant Vogtle nuclear facility because of sloppy construction work and missed contractor deadlines. (Associated Press)

PIPELINES:
• Six Virginia landowners reach a settlement with the Mountain Valley Pipeline three years after their properties were buried in mud that washed from a construction site during heavy rains. (Roanoke Times)
• Ten anti-pipeline protestors receive fines but no jail time after pleading guilty to misdemeanors stemming from a collective action in August that blocked Mountain Valley Pipeline construction crews for several hours. (WDBJ)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Southwestern Virginia residents complain to a state environmental justice board about toxic emissions from a regional landfill and failed reclamation at coal mines. (Kingsport Times News)

SOLAR: A renewables company begins work on a 70 MW solar farm in North Carolina. (Solar Builder)

COAL:
• A coal company pauses operations at an Alabama coking plant to make fixes after a county health department cited several violations and tried to deny it an operating permit. (WIAT)
• A U.K.-based holding company announces plans to reopen a southern West Virginia coal mine in response to global demand for steel. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• A contracted employee falls 40 feet and is injured at a West Virginia coal-fired power plant. (Times Leader)

OIL & GAS:
• A recently announced merger between oil and gas two companies would create the biggest natural gas processor in west Texas’ Delaware Basin and represents the kind of deal that has helped smaller companies stay afloat. (S&P Global)
• Texas oil exploration and production companies added 2,900 jobs in September, a sign of the industry’s ongoing recovery from its pandemic slump. (Houston Chronicle)

CLIMATE: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will travel to Scotland this week to promote the state as a location for clean energy projects at ​​the United Nations Climate Change Conference. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• The cost of the long delays in construction of two new units at a Georgia nuclear power plant will fall to ratepayers, complains an editorial board. (Brunswick News)
• Virginia regulators should deny the Mountain Valley Pipeline a permit to cross streams to protect the state’s water quality from a construction project that’s already racked up more than 300 violations, writes a climate activist. (Blue Virginia)

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.