SOLAR: Critics charge that Duke Energy’s revised green tariff program in North Carolina will do little to accelerate new renewable development because it requires large customers to choose from projects among losing bids in the utility’s solar procurement process. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Construction has stalled on Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast’s planned North Carolina factory after the company revised its plans for a smaller building footprint but hasn’t yet submitted new documents to the state. (Raleigh News & Observer, WRAL)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Republican attorneys general from Florida and 22 other states petition the U.S. EPA to stop taking race into account when regulating pollution. (Floodlight)

GRID: 

UTILITIES: 

  • Lobbying reports reveal Kentucky’s electric cooperative association spent big successfully pushing for passage of a bill to create more obstacles to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants, while two for-profit utilities also spent large amounts of money in a failed attempt to block the legislation. (WKYU)
  • A Kentucky city council considers requiring a franchise agreement with electric providers who lease city land, enabling it to charge a 3% franchise fee. (Link NKY)
  • Georgia regulators approve Georgia Power’s plan to build new gas plants and add battery storage to account for growing power demand, but critics question assertions the changes will result in lower bills. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

COAL: Democratic U.S. senators in Virginia and West Virginia applaud a new federal rule to more tightly regulate silica dust, which factors into black lung disease. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

EMISSIONS: 

CLIMATE: Advocates and families of people incarcerated in Louisiana prisons say the state has failed to protect prisoners from extreme summer heat, while officials say they’ve asked for state funding to install air conditioning in two prisons. (Verite News)

NUCLEAR: Virginia lawmakers approve Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s changes to a bill that allows utilities to seek regulatory approval to charge customers for the cost of developing small modular nuclear reactors. (Cardinal News)

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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.