UTILITIES: Georgia Power reaches a settlement with state regulators to retire two coal-burning and two natural gas-burning units at two power plants this summer, but delays plans to develop 1,000 MW of battery storage capacity. (Capital Beat News Service)

ALSO: A North Carolina city council member voices concern about the municipal utility’s growing budget, which is escalating due to fuel costs, employee retention and investments in new technology. (Rocky Mount Telegram)

GRID:
• Power providers in Alabama, Tennessee and Texas encourage customers to conserve energy amid a heat wave and skyrocketing power demand across the Southeast. (AL.com, WBIR, San Antonio Express-News)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s CEO says a forecast heat wave will drive power demand in June to its highest levels in more than a decade. (The Tennessean)
• A Texas power company blames weekend outages on record heat and electric demand. (KXAN)
• A Louisiana judge vacates a $1 million fine against Entergy for repeated power outages between 2014 and 2017, but the New Orleans City Council vows to appeal the decision. (NOLA.com, subscription)
• Tesla lobbies Texas to change its rules to enable people with residential solar and storage systems to bid on extra power capacity as it encourages its Powerwall customers to collaborate on a “virtual power plant.” (Electrek; E&E News, subscription)

SOLAR: A Virginia city installs a solar education facility in a city park. (WDBJ)

WIND: Georgia Tech researchers explore repurposing used wind turbine blades as utility poles. (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Florida city officials negotiate with a utility to lock in the price of natural gas for two years. (WMBB)

NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority replaces four potentially unreliable steam generators at a six-year-old nuclear power plant in Tennessee. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

CARBON CAPTURE: Mississippi lawmakers hope an existing pipeline that captures carbon dioxide from an extinct volcano and pushes it underground to squeeze out oil will give the state a leg up in the growing carbon capture sector. (Mississippi Today)

COAL:
• Miners’ advocates hail a federal crackdown on silica exposure rules meant to arrest a sharp rise in black lung cases, but warn its effectiveness depends on consistent enforcement. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)
• Appalachian coal production is likely to remain relatively low even as prices spike because of labor shortages after years of decline. (Marketplace)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Texas officials release a draft plan to install electric vehicle chargers across the state, and seek public comment before submitting it to the federal government. (KCBD)

HYDROELECTRIC: Appalachian Power warns Virginians of fluctuating water levels downstream of two dams after a regional grid operator says the utility may need to increase power generation at its hydropower facilities. (Cardinal News)

TRANSITION: Experts warn a decline in poverty in rural counties reliant on outdoor recreation may come in part from residents moving when costs of living rise. (Daily Yonder)

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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.