ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle investments are transforming rural Georgia and other parts of the Southeast into a bustling “battery belt,” even as Republican officials and Congress members do little to encourage EVs or acknowledge climate change. (Washington Post)

ALSO:
• Panasonic says it’s considering building an electric vehicle battery plant in Oklahoma despite previously spurning the state for Kansas, but wants nearly $1 billion in state incentives. (Reuters, Journal Record)
• Municipal utility officials in Austin, Texas, say they’ll begin a preventative maintenance schedule for their electric vehicle charger network as they try to keep pace with above-average EV registrations. (Austin Monitor)

SOLAR:
• A Virginia community advocate questions the lack of details around a plan for 186 new solar-powered apartments recently approved by a county board. (WRIC)
• Hundreds of Kentucky residents pack a meeting about a utility’s plan to expand a solar farm. (WDKY)

CLIMATE:
• Insurance companies offer increasingly scarce property coverage in Texas following a similar pullback in Florida and Louisiana, forcing coastal homeowners to buy policies from a state-chartered insurance program instead. (E&E News)
• Last week’s flash rainstorm dumped nearly 26 inches of rain in 24 hours on Fort Lauderdale, Florida, likely setting a state record. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

TRANSITION: A West Virginia company has kept pace with the clean energy transition by shifting from manufacturing mining equipment to making parts for the solar, wind and electric vehicle markets. (WVVA)

GRID: Critics argue Texas legislation to give state regulators more ability to restrict wind and solar projects singles out renewables while ignoring power generation from fossil fuels. (KTRK)

OIL & GAS: A Texas official touts record oil and natural gas severance tax revenues and says he expects the trend will continue. (Odessa American)

BUILDINGS: A Kentucky school board unanimously agrees to issue a request for proposals to make school buildings more energy efficient. (Murray Ledger & Times) 

CARBON CAPTURE: A Texas rancher who’s been negotiating with a carbon capture company for months says she’ll walk if state lawmakers pass legislation allowing companies to shift liability to the state, demonstrating the legal and regulatory uncertainty around the technology. (E&E News)

UTILITIES:
• American Electric Power announces it has terminated a deal to sell Kentucky Power to Liberty Utilities. (Appalachian News-Express)
• Georgia consumer advocacy staff reach a settlement with Georgia Power and recommend a slight reduction in the utility’s push to recover $2.1 billion in higher fuel costs. (The Current)

COMMENTARY:
• North Carolina will soon expand its electric vehicle charging network to grow from 1,408 publicly available non-Tesla chargers, whose relatively small numbers remain an obstacle to EV adoption, writes the director of a clean energy nonprofit. (Energy News Network)
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plans to build a small modular nuclear reactor depend as much on workforce development as technology, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)
• Florida legislation to allow utility companies to earn a profit on higher-cost fuel sources would hurt families already struggling with rising living costs, writes the state AARP director. (Florida Politics)

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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.