SOLAR: The largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S. announces it will build a $1.1 billion factory in Alabama. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ALSO:
• An embattled solar company that shut down unexpectedly last month begins bankruptcy proceedings in North Carolina. (WTVD)
• A Tennessee solar farm that will mitigate roughly 70% of Vanderbilt University’s greenhouse gas emissions nears completion. (news release)
• A Louisiana parish council approves a grading variance for a solar facility. (Hammond Daily Star)

OIL & GAS:
• Louisiana’s state government has taken advantage of the loss of more than 2,000 square miles of coastal marsh to claim rights to oil and gas below navigable waters in areas where former coastline has eroded to open water. (NOLA.com)
• A study finds dispersants used during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and other disasters transform crude oil into a toxic airborne mist that can travel for miles and penetrate human lungs. (NOLA.com)
• A university study projects Louisiana’s oil and gas industry will add 3,500 jobs by the second quarter of next year, but the workforce likely won’t reach pre-pandemic levels anytime soon. (Greater Baton Rouge Business Report)

ACTIVISM: Four climate activists from Louisiana and Texas are arrested in Washington, D.C., for a sit-in against proposed offshore oil terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. (Texas Tribune)

WIND: The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announces eight areas offshore North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware for future wind energy development. (news release)

COAL: An appeals court dismisses Oklahoma’s push to regulate surface mining operations instead of the federal government. (Journal Record)

EMISSIONS: Virginia supports a multi-state lawsuit led by West Virginia against the U.S. EPA over a proposed rule imposing more stringent vehicle emissions standards. (Virginia Mercury)

CLIMATE: Health care experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center draw a connection between climate change and an increase in health problems including auto-inflammatory diseases, skin conditions and cancer. (Tennessee Lookout)

GRID:
• Entergy builds a new substation in Louisiana. (KPLC)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority announces its preferred route for a transmission line to a Tennessee industrial park. (T&D World)

EFFICIENCY: An Arkansas college adopts a bond measure to fund energy efficiency improvements identified in an performance audit. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY:
• Estimated losses of nearly $9.5 billion from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole should  push Florida lawmakers to climate change more seriously, writes an editorial board. (Palm Beach Post)
• Texas regulators’ plan to fix the state grid largely benefits and boosts profits for the fossil fuel industry that’s largely to blame for the outages during last year’s winter storm, writes an energy columnist. (Houston Chronicle)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to replace coal-fired power plants with natural gas undermines President Biden’s climate agenda by continuing to generate greenhouse gases into the foreseeable future, writes a Tennessee Congress member. (The Hill)

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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.