PIPELINES: Appalachian, Indigenous and southeastern activists protest legislation to accelerate permitting for pipelines and other projects, complaining their communities were sacrificed as a bargaining chip to pass a climate spending package. (Washington Post)

ALSO: A coalition of U.S. lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders opposes legislation to speed completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other energy projects. (ABC News)

BIOGAS: North Carolina environmentalists are outraged to learn that a hog farm that houses a renewable gas project spilled 3 million gallons of waste in May. (WRAL)

SOLAR:
• A Virginia county approves a permit and siting agreement for Dominion Energy to build a 90 MW solar farm. (Gazette-Virginian)
• Residents of a rural Virginia community complain about Dominion Energy’s construction of a solar farm on 1,200 acres previously used for crop and tobacco production. (Chatham Star-Tribune)
• Florida regulators re-approve Duke Energy’s plan to build 10 solar farms after the state supreme court orders them to revise their decision. (Citrus County Chronicle)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A former U.S. EPA administrator for the Southeast discusses how climate change, white flight and environmental injustice led to the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES:
• Memphis, Tennessee, activists question the Tennessee Valley Authority’s promises to do better by Black and low-income residents if the city council approves a new 20-year deal to purchase power from it. (Tennessee Lookout)
• An Alabama city council approves a resolution for its municipal utility and the Tennessee Valley Authority to finish capital projects totaling more than $100 million. (WHNT)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Tesla files paperwork to build a lithium refinery in Texas, but company officials say the final decision to build hinges on their ability to obtain local property tax relief. (Reuters)
• An Arkansas city offers a $200 incentive to builders to include electric vehicle charging receptacles. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

OVERSIGHT:
• Sixty-one Democratic Virginia lawmakers sign on to a letter arguing the state’s involvement in a regional carbon market is up to the legislature and cannot be undone by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin through regulatory means. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Virginia’s citizens air board considers whether to do away with a committee that was established to improve public engagement and transparency in environmental permitting. (Virginia Mercury)
• U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visits Houston to talk about geothermal technology and discuss climate change and the Texas power grid. (KPRC, KRIV)

OIL & GAS:  A loose barge strikes a pipeline in a Louisiana lake, triggering an explosion and fire. (NOLA.com)

CARBON CAPTURE: A Louisiana parish imposes a year-long moratorium on injection wells used for carbon-capture projects, with local officials saying they need more time to develop regulations. (The Advocate)

STORAGE: Duke Energy adds two lithium-ion battery sites in Florida to strengthen the grid. (West Orlando News)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Entergy partners with an Arkansas school district on energy efficiency improvements. (news release)

COMMENTARY: Federal lawmakers shouldn’t consider legislation to reduce public input on environmental permitting for energy projects at a time when communities are suffering the effects of climate change and past energy development, writes a staffer for an Appalachian advocacy group. (Virginia Mercury)

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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.