SOLAR: Virginia regulators approve 15 Dominion Energy solar projects that represent nearly 1,000 MW of total power, including a 100 MW facility at Dulles Airport. (WRIC, Associated Press, WUSA)

ALSO: North Carolina’s attorney general asks state regulators to delay approving Duke Energy’s plans to lower payments and add a monthly charge for rooftop solar customers. (WFAE)

COAL:
• An energy company will close a West Virginia coal-fired power plant next year even after state lawmakers passed a tax break to keep it running. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
• A newly launched research venture will investigate whether Southwest Virginia’s waste coal can be turned into raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and other high-tech products. (Cardinal News)
• Congress members in Georgia and Kentucky introduce a bill to expedite benefits from the federal black lung trust fund to coal miners who suffer from the disease. (Commonwealth Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A new report spotlights the growth of the Southeast’s electric vehicle industry, noting EV sales jumped 48% in the region while overall auto sales in the U.S. grew just 3%. (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
• A Texas study finds that few state residents own or intend to buy an electric vehicle, although younger people are much more likely to consider it. (KPRC)

PIPELINES: Oil company Marathon says a ruptured Texas pipeline has been repaired and has federal permission to resume operation, although the cause of the break remains under investigation. (Beaumont Enterprise)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: Texas electric cooperatives field proposals to build Bitcoin mines with high energy needs that threaten to drive up bills for consumers. (Bloomberg)

POLITICS:
• West Virginia lawmakers fail to pass legislation to boost funding for the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, leaving it with half as many inspectors as before the pandemic. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• West Virginia’s governor appoints a lawyer who has represented coal companies in mining fatality cases to the board of a state energy authority recently reactivated to promote fossil fuels. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

EMISSIONS: Duke Energy and Dominion Energy ramp up their carbon emission reduction goals to include some upstream producers, some downstream customers and power they use but don’t produce. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: The nation’s highest paid federal employee is the president and CEO of Tennessee Valley Authority, who makes nearly $10 million while leading a utility that still gets huge chunks of its power generation from coal and methane. (New Republic)

FINANCE:
• Arkansas’ treasurer withdraws $125 million from accounts managed by BlackRock over its shift from fossil fuels toward clean energy. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A Texas official sends letters to 19 financial firms warning them about a new law that means they could lose state business if they divest from oil, natural gas and coal companies. (Texas Tribune)

COMMENTARY:
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should give America the resolve to shift to clean energy, writes the North Carolina chair of Conservatives for Clean Energy. (Hickory Record)
• Virginia’s membership in a regional carbon trading market makes it possible for low-income residents to pay for energy efficiency improvements and lower their power bills, writes a housing advocate. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

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.