POLITICS: Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp publicly shrugs off climate change but has also aggressively — and successfully — pursued economic opportunities related to clean energy. (Politico)

ALSO:
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin halted the state’s efforts to win a Ford electric vehicle battery plant last year because of his concerns about the involvement of a Chinese company. (Virginia Mercury)
• Virginia lawmakers advance a bill to exempt large electricity users from costs associated with utilities’ state-mandated obligation to cut carbon emissions. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

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GRID:
• PJM grid officials blame natural gas and coal plant failures for power shortages in its 13-state territory during last month’s winter storm. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority and Nashville’s municipal utility blame last month’s rolling blackouts on frozen sensors at a coal plant and a substation catching fire. (WTVF)
• A municipal Alabama utility official tells a city council it implemented rolling blackouts last month at the behest of the Tennessee Valley Authority, relieving grid overload and avoiding a “worst-case scenario.” (AL.com)
• Texas officials say they’re pleased the grid made it through last month’s cold snap without the need for blackouts or emergency operations. (KVUE)
• Texas regulators delay a vote on a proposed redesign of the state electricity market to give state lawmakers more time to decide whether to pursue alternatives. (Austin American-Statesman)

SOLAR:
• A Virginia planning commission votes for the third time in three years to recommend denial of a 149 MW solar farm despite numerous concessions to reduce its size and mitigate construction impacts. (Culpeper Star-Exponent)
• A Texas municipal utility files plans to build a 10 MW solar facility. (KTSM)
• A 16-year-old successfully writes a proposal to locate solar umbrellas to charge laptops and devices at a North Carolina college. (WFMY)
• A Georgia woman says she was misled by a solar company who told her the government would cover installation costs but didn’t make her aware she’d still have to pay for solar panels. (WTOC)

STORAGE: Documents reveal Georgia offered $358 million in incentives to attract a $2.57 billion battery factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

UTILITIES: Dominion Energy signs an agreement to buy energy from a South Carolina solar plus storage project. (Charleston Post and Courier)

COAL:
• Tennessee officials request public feedback on whether to grant a pollution permit to release water from a Tennessee Valley Authority coal plant. (WBIR)
• A Florida utility and a demolition company raise money for injured veterans by requesting donations for a link to watch a livestream of a coal plant’s demolition. (Patch)

OIL & GAS:
• Federal officials backpedal on a plan to designate the Permian Basin in violation of ozone standards, which would have required significant reforms in the oil and gas industry. (Inside Climate News)
• A Texas family complains that a neighboring injection well overflows and spills oil onto their property, threatening their garden, animals and children. (KETK)

PIPELINES: Louisville, Kentucky’s energy utility sues a nonprofit to break its conservation easement and place a 12-mile natural gas pipeline through a storied arboretum and research forest. (Courier Journal)

TRANSITION: A new report declares North Carolina is at the “forefront” of the clean energy transition with workforce development and its engagement with the electric vehicle supply chain. (WRAL) 

COMMENTARY: Last month’s attack on electrical substations in North Carolina should be taken as a warning against politically motivated fringe groups who want to trigger societal collapse by targeting the grid, writes an author and creator of “How Stuff Works.” (WRAL)

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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.