WIND: As a spate of whale deaths in the Northeast is wrongly blamed on offshore wind development, Dominion Energy follows a meticulous safety checklist to build its 2.6 GW wind farm off Virginia’s coast without harming the sea creatures. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: A proposed 180 MW Arkansas wind farm generates opposition even though there is little the county government could do to stop the project. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

GRID:
• A Texas court finds state regulators overstepped their authority during the 2021 winter storm when they raised power prices to the maximum in an attempt to tell the market that more power generation was urgently needed. (Texas Tribune)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority and Duke Energy implemented historic rolling blackouts when natural gas and coal facilities froze during the Christmas cold snap, despite investing billions to shore up the grid after 2014’s polar vortex. (Floodlight/Guardian)

EFFICIENCY: Tennessee lawmakers consider a bill to block cities from requiring developers to construct more efficient homes and buildings. (WPLN)

SOLAR:
• A public-private partnership offers Virginia and West Virginia public schools and community colleges grants to fund campus solar arrays and related educational opportunities. (Cardinal News)
• A Kentucky city partners with an energy advocacy group to boost residential solar installation. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Tennessee cleanup contractor that works with the federal government receives 11 electric vehicles as it begins to electrify its fleet. (Oak Ridger)

OIL & GAS:
• Developers build or expand five liquified natural gas terminals on the Gulf Coast, with another eight approved and eight more proposed, as LNG prices and demand spike due to the war in Ukraine. (Guardian)
• Shell announces it will move forward to begin production at two wells on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOLA.com)

COAL:
• A study finds growing rates of lung cancer and black lung disease among coal miners after a decline in the 1980s. (WV Metro News)
• West Virginia lawmakers pass bills to prop up the coal industry even as the state becomes home to more clean energy companies. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph) 

CARBON CAPTURE: A group of technology developers submit an application to secure investment for a planned direct air capture hub along the Gulf Coast. (UPI)

RENEWABLES: A silicon metal plant to supply renewable energy, energy storage and automotive industries that ran into permitting troubles and public opposition in Washington is now taking shape in Tennessee. (Spokesman-Review)

UTILITIES: Arkansas’ attorney general urges state regulators to investigate the billing and gas-purchasing practices of Summit Utilities after thousands of customer complaints. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

NUCLEAR: A Virginia lawmaker cheers the passage of three bills to support modular nuclear reactor development. (Bristol Herald Courier)

COMMENTARY:
• A Kentucky editorial board reconsiders whether it should have acknowledged a gubernatorial candidate’s marriage to a coal billionaire when it published her op-ed piece calling on the state to stick with coal over other energy sources. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
• Georgia ratepayers are footing the bill for Georgia Power’s mismanaged expansion of nuclear Plant Vogtle, writes the director of a climate advocacy group. (Georgia Recorder)

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Mason Adams

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.