POLITICS: A planned solar factory in U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Georgia district serves as an example of how President Biden is securing support for his clean energy accomplishments even in deep-red congressional districts. (Politico, WRDW)

ALSO: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejects $377 million in federal funding for energy-efficiency rebates and electrification from the climate and infrastructure packages. (Miami Herald)

PIPELINES: A federal court hands down a ruling to halt Mountain Valley Pipeline construction along its entire, 303-mile route as the project’s developer considers an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Roanoke Times, Bloomberg Law)

SOLAR:
• Solar’s growth from supplying 2% of the power on the Texas state grid in 2020 to 15.5% now showcases its role in propping up the grid during this summer’s intense heat wave. (KTVT)
• A municipal Tennessee utility launches construction of a 70 MW solar farm in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority. (WBIR)
• A Virginia county board approves a permit for a 350 MW solar farm. (Brunswick Times-Gazette)
• A Kentucky farmer scoffs at the idea solar power is wasting cropland as he encourages others to partner with solar and transmission companies. (News-Enterprise)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Automaker Nissan invests $500 million to revamp its Mississippi factory and make it the center of its North American efforts to make electric vehicles. (TheStreet)
• The United Auto Workers look to gain a foothold in automakers’ joint-venture factories with battery companies in Kentucky, Tennessee and elsewhere. (Washington Post, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COAL: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies agree to catch up on overdue fines resulting from a 2020 settlement over unsafe working conditions in their mines. (Associated Press)

OIL & GAS:
• Oklahoma regulators say researchers have linked a series of recent earthquakes to oil and gas fracking. (KFOR)
• A Florida city moves to shift its vehicle fleet from compressed natural gas to renewable gas from a landfill. (WKRG)

CLIMATE:
• New Orleans and other places in the Gulf South set up emergency cooling centers for unhoused people during the dangerous recent heat wave. (WWNO)
• Farmers Insurance becomes the fourth insurance company this year to withdraw from Florida amid the growing threat of hurricanes and other extreme weather. (CBS News)

GRID: Even though the Texas state power grid has held up so far through a summer heat wave, experts criticize state lawmakers’ plan to incentivize new gas plants by noting they were culpable in the grid’s near-collapse during the 2021 winter storm. (Spectrum News)

EFFICIENCY: Nashville’s mayor files legislation to replace the city’s streetlights with energy-efficient LED lights to reduce carbon emissions and save $20 million annually. (WKRN)

HYDROGEN: Entergy works with a company that’s developing a 350 MW green hydrogen plant in Texas. (Orange Leader)

UTILITIES:
• Texas’ consumer advocate challenges a utility after its new natural gas-fired power plant comes in tens of millions of dollars over budget. (El Paso Matters)
• Arkansas officials say a gas utility has cleaned up “hundreds of thousands” of billing errors and customer service problems, but call for regulators to continue to monitor it for two more years. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY: An editorial board hails job creation expected from construction and operation of a largely solar-powered Arkansas steel plant that will supply the electric vehicle industry. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

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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.