GRID: Texas’ grid manager tells state regulators that gas and coal outages and a congested transmission line that backed up large amounts of wind power contributed to emergency grid conditions earlier this month. (KDFW)

SOLAR:
• Florida outpaces California and Texas by adding 2,499 MW of solar power in the first half of 2023 despite the fact it doesn’t have a renewable portfolio standard and doesn’t allow power-purchase agreements. (Canary Media)
• Pope Francis gives “a big thumbs-up” to a Louisiana program that installs rooftop solar on churches and other community centers. (NOLA.com)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The number of electric vehicles registered in northern Texas surged by 63% and statewide by 56% over the last year. (Community Impact)
• The United Auto Workers begins a limited strike at three auto plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, while workers at two Ford plants in Louisville, Kentucky, haven’t yet been asked to strike. (Louisville Courier Journal)

STORAGE:
• A Virginia Tech professor’s energy startup wants to build a new kind of electric vehicle battery with regionally sourced materials, including coal-derived material. (Cardinal News)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority eyes two sites in Alabama for pumped-storage energy facilities. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, subscription)

OIL & GAS: Dominion Energy’s sale of its gas distribution utilities to a Canadian company faces scrutiny from regulators in North Carolina, Idaho, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming, and if approved would reduce the company to regulated electric utilities in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. (S&P Global)

CARBON CAPTURE:
• A fertilizer manufacturer is considering building a second $2 billion “blue” ammonia production facility in Louisiana using carbon capture to mitigate emissions. (The Advocate)
• Amazon reaches an agreement to purchase carbon removal and storage services from an oil company that’s building a carbon capture facility in Texas. (Beaumont Enterprise)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority partners with an energy company to study carbon capture retrofits at natural gas-fired power plants in Mississippi and Kentucky. (Power Engineering International)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A Kentucky utility moves to offer discounted power to crypto-mining operations, but state regulators worry whether the grid can handle the additional demand. (E&E News, subscription)

UTILITIES:
• Candidates for mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, debate how to improve reliability, energy costs and the transition to renewables at the city’s municipal utility. (Commercial Appeal)
• A pair of First Energy subsidiaries begin building two projects to improve wastewater treatment at West Virginia power plants. (Inter-Mountain)
• A Florida resident sees her power bill skyrocket even though she’s on “budget billing” after a program to benefit seniors installs a new air conditioner for free. (WESH)

CLIMATE:
• Rising seas threaten Louisiana’s coastline, pressuring policymakers to either shift from fossil fuels or consider how to relocate vulnerable communities. (NOLA.com)
• Louisiana’s lawyers argue to halt rising premiums under the federal government’s flood insurance program, calling them a “slow-moving storm.” (NOLA.com)

COMMENTARY: Texas’ power grid is threatened by a combination of an expanding populace, surging post-pandemic economic activity, climate change and growing pains from the clean energy transition, writes an analyst. (Bloomberg)

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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.