GRID: Energy experts say its summer performance demonstrates the Texas power grid is still vulnerable due to transmission bottlenecks, lower-than-expected coal and gas plant output, and slow renewable generation when the sun isn’t shining and the wind is calm. (Dallas Morning News)

ALSO: Arkansas will receive $10 million over two years to improve its power grid structure. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

SOLAR:
• Lucrative tax incentives in the federal climate law have contributed to at least 59 solar factory announcements since it was passed, including ambitious buildouts in Georgia. (S&P Global)
• A solar company set to break ground on its fifth U.S. factory in Louisiana urges the Biden administration to guard the burgeoning domestic solar industry against unfair Chinese competition. (Bloomberg)
• Enel signs a power purchase agreement to sell energy from a 202 MW solar farm with a 104 MW battery storage system in Texas. (PV Tech)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric vehicle maker Canoo transfers its securities from Nasdaq to a lower tier after falling out of compliance with its $1 minimum bid price requirement. (Arkansas Business)
• Georgia leads the U.S. with 27,817 recently announced electric vehicle manufacturing jobs, but their locations in largely rural parts of the state are changing dynamics around metro Atlanta. (Atlanta Business Journal, subscription)

OIL & GAS: A natural gas company signs a contract to secure engineering and design work for a planned $3.5 billion-plus Arkansas facility to convert natural gas into liquid transportation fuels. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

PIPELINES:
• The Mountain Valley Pipeline sues two activists it says obstructed access at work sites to delay construction. (Bloomberg)
• A Congress member announces $68,320 in federal funding for pipeline safety projects in a Virginia county. (WDBJ)

NUCLEAR: A Virginia nuclear services company collaborates with a Florida marine logistics firm to develop ships to carry small nuclear reactors that can provide power to places where power sources have been damaged or are unavailable. (Cardinal News)

UTILITIES:
• Market analysts say transactions of regulated and unrelated assets by Dominion Energy, Duke Energy and American Electric Power have led to “underwhelming outcomes” as utility stocks sag. (S&P Global)
• Tennessee Valley Authority officials tell a Mississippi city utility board that an assessment of its local electric utility reveals “significant concerns” about its financial health and compliance with power contracts. (The South Reporter)

CLIMATE: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announces the state has secured funding for 25 North Carolina members of the new federal Climate Action Corps to serve with existing AmeriCorps programs. (Coastal Review)

POLITICS: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis uses a Texas backdrop of two active oil rigs to declare humanity is “safer than ever” from climate change as he delivers his energy platform, which is built around reducing federal regulations on oil and gas production. (HuffPost, CBS News)

COMMENTARY:
• A Virginia farmer touts the idea of using marginal agricultural land to assist the transition from fossil fuels to utility-scale solar. (Virginia Mercury)
• Extreme weather this summer offered overwhelming evidence of the reality of climate change despite elected officials’ persistent denial, writes a retired Arkansas regulator. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

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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.