EMISSIONS: Texas oil companies dodge pollution complaints by using the state’s informal “one-mile rule” to dismiss groups and citizens who live farther than one mile from facilities being challenged, even as state officials deny that such a rule exists. (Inside Climate News)

ALSO: A West Virginia agency pushes back against the U.S. EPA’s proposal to  strengthen carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants despite the state’s high rates of asthma and lung cancer. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Vietnamese electric vehicle maker breaks ground on a $4 billion factory in North Carolina. (Associated Press)

COAL ASH: Duke Energy begins moving coal ash at a North Carolina power plant from unlined basins to a landfill, while contemplating whether to eventually transition the coal plant to nuclear, “hydrogen-capable” natural gas, battery storage, solar or a combination of those. (Winston-Salem Journal)

SOLAR: Two FirstEnergy subsidiaries in West Virginia tell state officials they plan to build five solar facilities on coal ash disposal sites. (Inter-Mountain)

OIL & GAS:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority starts up three natural gas-fired generators totaling 750 MW at the site of a former coal plant in Alabama to meet soaring summertime power demand. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Crude oil inventory at Oklahoma’s Cushing storage hub falls by 5.5 million barrels, setting the stage for what analysts believe will be a price increase. (Reuters)

PIPELINES: The fate of the Mountain Valley Pipeline remains uncertain amid lingering court cases, even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed construction to resume. (Mountain State Spotlight)

BIOMASS:
• An energy company eyes a Louisiana town for a $1.8 billion “green” methanol plant that would use wood fiber from local timber supplies at a former paper mill. (The Advocate)
• An engineering change delays a company’s plans to build a Mississippi plant to make jet fuel from woody biomass from the waste from the paper and lumber industries. (Magnolia State Live)

NUCLEAR: Arkansas’ nuclear power plant turns 50 years old, and its operator says it should continue to run until 2050. (Arkansas Business)

GRID:
• A Louisiana city is on the verge of a citywide power outage after a fire damaged an electrical substation. (KTBS)
• An energy company announces the construction of a Texas solar plant as part of a grid-strengthening project on the Texas-New Mexico border and the eventual retirement of a coal plant. (Eastern New Mexico News)

OVERSIGHT: A Florida municipal utility’s 2009 contract to build a biomass facility led to a chain reaction that eventually resulted in debt and the passage of a state law to shift oversight from city officials to a governor-appointed board. (WUFT)

CLIMATE:
• A southwestern Virginia county’s recovery from two 2021 flash floods has been spotty since a federal agency denied aid to residents. (Washington Post)
• Nashville, Tennessee, tests a special coating on paving projects to gauge its effectiveness at reducing street temperatures. (WKRN)

ACTIVISM: A West Virginia activist uses a drone to document environmental violations at strip-mining sites in hopes of shutting down the coal industry. (Guardian)

COMMENTARY:
• Louisiana regulators should closely scrutinize a utility’s plan to build costly carbon capture and sequestration at its coal plant, writes a Sierra Club organizer. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• A $50 million Florida program to build seawalls on private property could damage the state’s beaches and related tourism, writes a policy analyst at a beach advocacy group. (Miami Herald)

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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.