CLIMATE: At least 28 people have died in flooding in eastern Kentucky and more rain is expected as communities and an Appalachian cultural center reel from the damage. (Lexington Herald-Leader, NPR, Associated Press)

ALSO:
• The National Hurricane Center models how 2017’s Hurricane Irma would affect  Miami given current sea levels and finds flooding would top 9 feet farther inland, especially threatening a low-lying area of fast-growing suburbs.  (NPR)
• Climate change exacerbates subsidence and sea level rise along Louisiana’s coast, threatening brown pelican nesting sites. (Associated Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Hyundai plans to produce eight more electric vehicle models by 2030, many of which will be built at its recently announced Georgia factory. (Savannah Morning News)
• A reporter tours a company’s Vietnamese facilities as it prepares to build a $4 billion electric vehicle plant in North Carolina. (Chatham News + Record)

SOLAR: Arkansas regulators investigate accusations that the state’s 17 electric co-ops are slow-walking and delaying solar interconnections. (Arkansas Business)

GRID: Entergy advises a Louisiana city council its customers can expect to be without power for about a week if a Category 1 hurricane hits, and about 21 days for a Category 4 storm. (The Advocate)

OIL & GAS:
• ExxonMobil and Chevron each saw production growth in the Permian Basin for the second quarter of 2022 and project double-digit growth for the year. (S&P Global)
•  Twenty-seven Virginia lawmakers and thousands of respondents ask federal regulators not to grant the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request for more time. (Augusta Free Press)

UTILITIES:  Southern Co. approaches a clean energy transition in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi by embracing nuclear and natural gas as well as wind, solar and battery storage. (Power)

STORAGE:
• Dominion Energy begins operation at a 12 MW battery facility next to a solar farm in Virginia. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• A renewables company announces it’s acquired a 150 MW battery energy storage project in Texas from Con Edison. (news release)

HEAT:
• Farm laborers, roofers, construction workers and other outdoor workers in Georgia — many of whom are immigrants, racial minorities and low-income residents — are more at risk from heat-related illness or death with few federal or state protections. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Austin, Texas, just experienced its hottest July on record, and it’s not even close. (KXAN)
• A Florida heat officer works to prepare the Miami area for extreme heat that’s been made worse by climate change. (NPR)

POLITICS: A West Virginia Congress member calls out U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s support for a climate spending package, saying it would harm the state’s coal industry. (Inter-Mountain)

COMMENTARY:
• Virginia regulators’ approval of Appalachian Power’s long-term clean energy plans marks an important step in the utility’s slow march to renewables, writes an editorial board. (Roanoke Times)
• Since 2017, Chattanooga, Tennessee, has seen manufacturers announce they’ll invest nearly $12 billion in electric vehicles in the region, illustrating the importance of its workforce development, writes the director of an innovation and technology institute. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

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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.