STORAGE: Dominion moves to test iron-air and zinc hybrid batteries in a pilot project at a Virginia power station. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, news release)

WIND:
• The Osage Nation asks a judge to remove wind development from a mineral estate as it fights an Italian energy company that’s building wind farms on the Great Plains. (KOSU)
• Dominion Energy offers a coastal Virginia city $19 million for easements to transmit power from its planned offshore wind farm, along with $1.14 million to replace trees that will be cut to make way for transmission lines. (Virginian-Pilot)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• New electric vehicle battery plants in the largely non-unionized Southeast are playing a contributing role in the United Auto Workers strike. (CNN)
• As the strike continues, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp relishes his success in attracting electric vehicle and battery investment over states with more union-friendly policies. (Politico)
• Hyundai signs an agreement with Georgia Tech to research hydrogen-fueled engines for large trucks and electric vehicle batteries as the automaker rushes to begin electric vehicle and battery production at its Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• A South Carolina county considers new rules for solar farms that are at least one acre, as residents call for more protection of rural areas. (Times and Democrat)
• An energy company secures financing to build a 134 MW solar farm in Texas. (Houston Chronicle, news release)
• Virginia regulators strike down Dominion Energy’s interconnection rules for certain solar projects because they were implemented without obtaining state approval. (Utility Dive)

CARBON CAPTURE: A Texas agency moves to award leases for companies competing for federal money to build carbon capture plants along the Gulf Coast and store carbon deep beneath the seafloor. (Texas Tribune)

EFFICIENCY: A metro Florida county considers breaking ties with a tax assessment district that helps finance energy efficiency improvements because of concerns about the financially troubled company that administers it. (Miami Today) 

CLEAN ENERGY: Microsoft strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company to secure renewable energy to power some of its Texas data centers. (Solar Industry)

COAL:
• Virginia Tech researchers use coal to produce graphene, which has high thermo-conductivity and can be used in microchips and electric vehicle batteries. (WVTF)
• Two Alabama environmental groups sue a coal company owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice for years of coal sediment discharges that “suffocate” waterways. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• More than 280 of the Justice family’s properties are sold at auction due to nearly $400,000 in delinquent taxes, indicating hard times for the family’s coal business. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

CLIMATE: Virginia policymakers consider a dedicated state flood recovery program that could fill gaps and replace funding from a regional carbon market from which the governor is trying to withdraw. (Virginia Mercury)

POLITICS: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to lay out his presidential campaign’s energy agenda in a speech from a Texas city in the heart of the oil-and-gas-rich Permian Basin. (CNN)

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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.