Southeast Energy News is one of five regional services published by the Energy News Network. Today’s edition was compiled by Mason Adams.
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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A group of low-income, mostly Black residents in the largest U.S. city to rely 100% on groundwater seek to protect the aquifer against coal ash, pipelines and other potentially toxic contamination. (The Guardian)
ALSO: The U.S. EPA investigates whether Louisiana discriminated against Black residents in connection with air pollution from planned and existing industrial plants between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. (Associated Press)
PIPELINES: Federal regulators approve Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to tunnel beneath 180 streams and wetlands, though the long-delayed project still lacks other key permits. (Roanoke Times)
BIOMASS: A North Carolina power plant that generates power from poultry waste and wood chips and has been fined for repeatedly exceeding allowable gas emissions seeks a permit to restart operations after it shut down in 2020. (Inside Climate News)
SOLAR:
• Wind and solar have contributed more than a third of the power on the Texas grid so far in 2022, with solar alone generating 85% more power than in the same period last year. (Houston Chronicle)
• Planned West Virginia solar projects are hampered by supply chain issues, uncertainty over tax credits and delays in regional transmission organization approvals. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)
• A Virginia school board considers a pilot project to install solar energy facilities at county schools to lower utility costs. (Roanoke Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A Georgia four-county authority decides to seek state funding to buy land for Rivian’s planned electric vehicle plant. (Covington News)
• Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards discusses investments in electric vehicle chargers and calls for transitioning the state’s fleet to low- and zero-emission vehicles. (news release)
• Piedmont North Carolina counties lag the rest of the state’s metro areas in per-capita rates of registered EVs. (Winston-Salem Journal)
OIL & GAS: Houston residents organize to try to stop construction of a nearby propane storage facility. (HuffPost)
STORAGE: A California company eyes West Virginia for a potential factory to build cobalt-free batteries. (WV Metro News)
UTILITIES:
• The mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, strikes a neutral tone amid heated debate over whether the city should stick with the Tennessee Valley Authority as its electricity provider or go with one of more than two dozen interested alternatives. (Commercial Appeal)
• An Arkansas city considers creating a utility board to oversee its public electric, sanitation, sewer and water utilities. (Siloam Springs Herald-Leader)
CLIMATE: San Antonio, Texas, prepares for increasingly frequent wildfires and extended drought as climate change brings more extreme weather. (San Antonio Report)
POLITICS: At least 16 activists are arrested for trespassing during a protest outside a West Virginia coal-fired plant that buys waste coal from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s family company. (Times West Virginian, Common Dreams)
CRYPTOCURRENCY: A crypto firm partners with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. on a cryptocurrency mining venture in Texas that plans to source energy from Tesla’s solar-powered battery. (Bloomberg)
CARBON CAPTURE: The CEO of a North Carolina venture capital firm discusses the potential to use turbine technology to generate gas-fired power while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (Houston Chronicle)
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