COAL: Many retired coal miners and advocates are skeptical about an effort to reduce black lung cases with a proposed federal rule to reduce silica exposure, due largely to decades of inaction and lingering questions about implementation and enforcement. (Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• The U.S. climate law passed a year ago is already juicing clean energy development, including the installation of solar facilities in places like Kentucky that still rely on cheaply produced coal power. (Associated Press)
• A Virginia county board orders planners to make changes to its zoning ordinance to block any new solar farms, which they say are taking up too much agricultural land. (Northern Virginia Daily)
• Chesapeake Bay advocates worry Virginia’s rapidly growing number of solar farms could increase its impervious surface area and lead to more stormwater pollution. (Bay Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• South Korean companies have played a major part in the Southeast’s electric vehicle and battery boom, announcing major factories in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. (Inside Climate News)
• Tennessee officials express excitement about Ford’s BlueOval City electric vehicle park as a supplier announces planned factories at and near the site. (WKRN)
• Georgia’s transportation department seeks volunteers for a pilot project to replace gas taxes with a tax based on the number of miles driven. (Capitol Beat News Service)
• A Republican Florida lawmaker warns against using electric vehicles during hurricane evacuations until more charging stations can be built. (Orlando Weekly)

PIPELINES: Stakeholders in the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline hope the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to overturn a pair of stays by a federal court and allow the project to resume construction before winter arrives. (WV News)

GRID:
• Experts question why Texas has implemented efficiency and demand-response programs for commercial and industrial customers but almost none for residential customers. (Canary Media)
• A Texas grid expert discusses the reliability of regional and Texas’ state grids as a summer heat wave drives record-breaking demand. (NPR)

HYDROELECTRIC: A South Carolina community prepares to refill a pond and restore operations at a hydropower dam that will partly power operations at a nearby brewery. (The State)

POLITICS:
• An analyst finds natural gas and energy companies helped write Florida legislation, including a law that provides tax breaks for natural gas equipment, fuel and infrastructure. (WLRN)
• A generational wave of state legislator retirements in Virginia makes it all the more important for those who remain to educate new lawmakers about environmental justice, say two state senators up for reelection. (Virginian-Pilot)

CLIMATE:
• West Virginia flooding events increased 407% in the first years of Gov. Jim Justice’s two terms, and experts urge support for more flood protection projects as they predict the numbers will only get worse. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Warming temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean push meteorologists to revise their forecasts to increase the likelihood of hurricane formation. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• A study finds Atlanta buildings that lack central cooling systems, house older populations and have sparse tree canopies leave residents more vulnerable to heat risk. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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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.