POLITICS: As Virginia navigates the tricky transition from reliance on coal to renewables, its part-time lawmakers consider rebooting an electric utility regulation commission to review and explain complicated energy policy issues. (Energy News Network)

COAL: An advocacy group calls on federal officials to investigate whether surface coal mines contributed to 35 deaths and one missing person during last year’s historic Kentucky flooding. (Louisville Courier Journal)

SOLAR:
• More than 90 Arkansas governmental organizations, nonprofits and others organize against state legislation to roll back the state’s net-metering rules and pay solar customers a fraction of the full retail rate they get now. (Arkansas Times)
• A Virginia town council considers a 5 MW solar project. (South Boston News & Record)

CLIMATE:
• As the two-year anniversary and statute of limitations for Texas’ 2021 winter storm arrive this week, lawyers have filed thousands of suits accusing power companies, distributors, electric grid operators and others of failing to properly prepare for it. (Texas Tribune)
• Rising seas threaten rural Virginia communities in ways that are less visible than urban areas and often come at a higher cost to individuals. (WVEC)

NUCLEAR: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he’ll include $50 million in his proposed budget to position the state as a next-generation nuclear power leader. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

OIL & GAS:
• Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz complains the Biden administration is taking too long to issue permits for five deepwater oil and gas export terminals off the Texas and Louisiana coasts. (Houston Chronicle)
• An energy company breaks ground on a 750 MW Louisiana combined-cycle natural gas plant that will also be able to use up to 50% hydrogen. (Greater Baton Rouge Business Report)
• West Virginia lawmakers consider a bill to better fund the state’s gas and oil well inspectors. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

EFFICIENCY: A Louisiana energy regulator announces he’ll give $310,000 from an energy efficiency fund to buy LED lights for a parkway in Shreveport. (Bossier Press-Tribune)

UTILITIES: Kentucky lawmakers consider legislation to limit gas and power disconnections for customers experiencing financial hardships. (WKYU)

ACTIVISM:
• Virginia landowners and a conservation group fight Amazon’s push to build a data center in a rural area over concerns about noise and new power lines. (Washington Post)
• North Carolina faith groups organize to install solar panels, plant community gardens and benefit the environment. (WFAE)

FINANCE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveils a legislative proposal to block state pension investments that use “environmental, social and governance” standards. (Tampa Bay Times)

COMMENTARY:
• Texas’ proposed regulatory scheme to pay generators to maintain extra capacity could result in a price spike for residents, warns an editorial board. (Houston Chronicle)
• Congress must pass permitting reform or risk missing its climate targets because of a project backlog, writes a Tennessee climate activist. (Tennessean)
• Florida and Texas’ mission to ban sustainable investment firms amounts to a hidden tax that’s costing their residents hundreds of millions of dollars, writes an editor. (Bloomberg, subscription)

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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.