EMISSIONS: The EPA reaches a tentative deal with environmental groups to review its hazardous air pollutant standards for manufacturing plants in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The number of electric vehicles registered in Arkansas jumped 43% in the first five months of 2022 compared to that time last year. (KUAR)
• A group opposed to electric vehicle maker Rivian’s plans to build a Georgia factory sue over a county board’s approval of incentives because public comment was not allowed during the meeting. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
• Georgia motorists say escalating gasoline prices may push them to consider buying electric vehicles. (WALB)
• A nonprofit clean energy group uses research, advocacy, and outreach to promote renewable energy and electric vehicles across the Southeast. (CleanTechnica)
• A dealership in Fort Worth, Texas, becomes the first to be certified to sell Mack Trucks’ first fully electric garbage truck. (Transport Topics)

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SOLAR:
• A public official approves the construction and operation of a 150 MW solar farm in Mississippi. (WCBI)
• An Arkansas water authority begins operation of a 1.1 MW solar array to offset its power usage. (Arkansas Business)

UTILITIES:
• An energy expert explains that electricity rates in Texas are especially volatile because the state has nothing to incentivize electricity generators to produce extra supply when there is extra demand. (WFAA)
• Entergy warns its Louisiana customers the rising price of natural gas could combine with the cost of storm repairs to increase power rates by an average of $25 per household per month. (The Advocate)

OIL & GAS:  Natural gas prices continue to rise on expected summer demand, a drop in wind energy output in Texas, and work on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that will slow flows to the Northeast. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

GRID: High June temperatures are expected to fuel energy demand and test the Texas grid’s resilience. (KUT)

OVERSIGHT:
• President Joe Biden nominates a Kentucky county judge executive and a former mayor from Mississippi to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board, while still awaiting Senate confirmation for three other nominees. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• A new inspector general for the Tennessee Valley Authority returns from retirement after previously working 31 years in the office. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

COMMENTARY:
• Texas needs to get a better handle on natural gas leaks in low-income and minority neighborhoods, writes the head of a Dallas-area neighborhood advocacy group. (Dallas Morning News)
• An editorial board calls for continued development of Louisiana’s liquified natural gas facilities and domestic oil and gas production to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine. (The Advocate)
• A years-long debate over a proposed onshore wind farm in western Virginia pits environmentalists who want to preserve nature and sustainability advocates who want to save the planet, writes a retired policy analyst. (Roanoke Times)

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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.