GRID: Federal regulators release a report finding Texas’ grid is nearly as vulnerable to collapse as it was last year when a winter storm caused widespread outages; state officials say the report is inaccurate and that they’ve made improvements. (Austin American-Statesman)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Hyundai breaks ground on its planned $5.5 billion electric vehicle factory in Georgia, which the governor used to push his re-election campaign. (Associated Press; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
• Company officials discuss the pending construction of Ford and SK Battery’s BlueOval City manufacturing campus that will make electric vehicles and batteries. (McKenzie Banner)
• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signs an executive order requiring more zero-emission vans, buses and commercial trucks over the next decade. (WUNC)

PIPELINES:
• The Sierra Club and other environmental groups challenge West Virginia regulators’ approval of a permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross streams and wetlands after they’d already issued nearly 140 citations against it. (Roanoke Times)
• Groundwater contaminated by a massive gasoline spill from the Colonial Pipeline in 2020 is spreading in North Carolina. (NC Policy Watch)

SOLAR:
• An electric cooperative builds four new solar projects across Virginia totaling 16.7 MW as it aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Virginia Mercury)
• Houston is building the country’s largest landfill-to-solar facility near a  majority-Black neighborhood, providing a model that may be replicated elsewhere. (Vox)

STORAGE: An energy company and Virginia city officials celebrate a new 10.5 MW battery project to store energy for the municipal utility. (Danville Register & Bee)

WIND:
• Wind power begins to take root in West Virginia communities that have long been dominated by coal. (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
• Dominion Energy’s fight with Virginia regulators over a performance guarantee is one of many dynamics that make wind industry officials cautious about the chances of attaining wind energy deployment goals. (Financial Times, subscription)

COAL: The municipal utility in San Antonio, Texas, wants to close its final coal-fired power plant and stop using coal as a power source by 2030, but it’s still unclear whether the state grid manager will allow it to do so. (San Antonio Report)

UTILITIES:
• The general manager of an Arkansas municipal utility tells city officials the cost of electricity is stabilizing as natural gas prices have declined. (Jonesboro Sun)
• A South Carolina cooperative declines to participate in a new gas-fired power plant but instead will replace its share of capacity from retiring coal units with power purchase agreements, batteries and more. (PV Magazine)
• An Oklahoma power company celebrates the centennial of a power plant that’s become a Tulsa landmark due to its gigantic lighted sign facing the Arkansas River. (Tulsa World)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

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.