CLIMATE: The Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, the United Houma Nation and other Native American tribes in Louisiana still haven’t recovered from extensive damage by Hurricane Ida last year, even as another bad storm season looms. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES:
• A congressional leader calls on the U.S. Senate to quickly approve President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board, restoring balance to a 9-member board whose three current members all were appointed by former President Trump. (WPLN)
• Georgia Power files a new long-term planning document that delays its investment in battery storage while shifting its plans to store coal ash and shutter its remaining coal-fired power plants. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A judge rejects a power company’s request to arbitrate a contract dispute with the largest power cooperative in Texas as an unnecessary disruption of its ongoing bankruptcy case. (Reuters)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Four Republican North Carolina lawmakers file legislation to require free gas pumps be placed anywhere there are no-cost electric vehicle chargers on municipal, county or state property. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• A Florida electric vehicle charging company acquires another EV infrastructure company, adding 13,000 electric vehicle chargers, 1,800 site host locations and 150,000 registered driver members. (Bloomberg)
• An Arkansas entrepreneur who owns an electric vehicle charging franchise hopes to be on the leading edge of the state’s EV infrastructure build-out. (Hot Springs Sentinel-Record)

EMISSIONS: A chemical company with a history of explosions, spills and air-quality violations in Louisiana agrees to spend $110 million in upgrades as part of a settlement with the U.S. EPA. (NOLA.com)

SOLAR: Construction begins on a 200 MW solar farm in Texas. (news release)

OIL & GAS:
• President Joe Biden chastises Texas-based Valero Energy and other oil refiners for profiteering off high gasoline prices and presses them to increase production. (San Antonio Report)
• A fire at a Texas liquified natural gas terminal will keep it out of service until later this year, fueling a rise in natural gas prices. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

HYDROGEN: Mitsubishi Power says it validated a 20% fuel blend of hydrogen and natural gas during a test run at a Georgia Power plant. (Power Engineering)

COAL: A Swiss raw materials trader sues one of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies after it allegedly failed to pay $1.5 million as part of a 2020 settlement over its failure to supply 70,000 tons of coal. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription) 

GRID: High temperatures and humidity stretch the power grid across the Southeast, as weather conditions are forecast to continue into next week. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, WTVF, Spectrum News, Knoxville News Sentinel)

COMMENTARY:
• An editorial board questions the feasibility of a West Virginia law that could restrict the state from doing business with banking firms until they drop environmental, social and governance standards. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
• Texas energy prices are soaring, in large part due to costs from last year’s winter storm. but also transmission congestion and a directive to procure more reserve energy, writes the state director of a conservative energy group. (Dallas Morning News)

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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.