TRANSITION: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announces former coal mining sites will be transformed into an “energy technology testbed” for hydrogen, mine-based geothermal, solar, energy storage and small modular nuclear reactors. (Cardinal News)

ALSO: Business and elected officials celebrate the announcement of plans to build a small modular nuclear reactor in a part of Virginia whose economy has sagged with the coal industry’s decline. (WJHL) 

WIND: Officials race to build out transmission upgrades ahead of offshore wind development in places like Virginia, where Dominion Energy estimates transmission improvements for its planned $10 billion wind farm will be more than 15% of the total project cost. (Virginia Mercury/States Newsroom)

HURRICANE IAN:
• Crews are still working to repair Florida’s damaged grid and dig people out from the wreckage left by Hurricane Ian. (Associated Press)
• Residents of a Florida island that was devastated by Hurricane Ian will be allowed to return to view their homes today. (CNN)

GRID:
• Florida regulators approve plans by four major utilities to strengthen the grid, even as they fret over the cost being passed on to customers. (WJCT)
• President Biden visits Puerto Rico as parts of the island struggle to restore power after Hurricane Fiona, and some residents complain they still haven’t recovered from Hurricane Maria in 2017. (Politico)
• North Carolina crews spent the weekend restoring power after Hurricane Ian, while one couple braved the weather to get married despite outages and storm damage. (Robesonian, Greensboro News & Record)
• South Carolina avoided severe damage to metro Charleston when Hurricane Ian veered north, and utilities say power was restored by Sunday. (Charleston City Paper)

CLIMATE:
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration names flood mitigation as a priority even as he moves to withdraw the state from a carbon market that largely funds those efforts. (WRIC)
• Texas farmers take a hit from weather that’s becoming hotter and drier, even as the state’s water policy-makers largely ignore climate change. (Inside Climate News)

SOLAR: Entergy will build a 250 MW solar array in Arkansas to power a U.S. Steel manufacturing plant. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Texas sees motorists increasingly adopt electric vehicles around metro areas like Austin and Dallas, where EVs accounted for 9.6% and 8.6% of new car registrations in July. (Axios)
• Tesla opens a new station with 12 electric vehicle chargers in Texas. (KBMT)
• Residents of a South Carolina city anticipate electric vehicle charging sites to be added near an interstate. (WCNC)
• A Tennessee city approves the purchase of an electric Ford F-150 Lightning for its public works department. (Chattanoogan)

COAL: West Virginia regulators propose a $125,000 settlement with a Kentucky coal company for alleged water pollution violations on three mining permits between 2018 and 2021. (Associated Press)

PIPELINES: The removal of legislation to force completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline leaves the project in limbo with key permits still blocked in court. (WXFR)

UTILITIES: Duke Energy officials tell investors it will spend $145 billion on clean energy over the next 10 years, which will lower emissions and increase profits, but come with a cost for customers likely to see higher rates. (WFAE)

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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.