SOLAR: Mississippi regulators add a $3,500 rebate for homes and businesses that purchase rooftop solar, and higher net-metering rate credits for households earning up to 250% of the federal poverty level. (Mississippi Today)
ALSO:
• A southern Virginia county board advances 80 MW and 97 MW solar farms. (Mecklenburg Sun)
• A nonprofit seeks Florida customers to form a solar co-op in which they’ll typically save about 20% compared to purchasing a system on their own. (South Florida Sun Sentinel, subscription)
• An eastern Tennessee solar installer receives more than two dozen complaints from customers in Kentucky and Tennessee, and has drawn the attention of Georgia’s attorney general. (WBIR)
GRID: Texas’ grid manager twice asked state residents to conserve energy this week because of high temperatures, low winds and higher-than-expected outages at coal and natural gas-fired power plants. (Texas Tribune; Dallas Morning News, subscription)
STORAGE: A southern Virginia battery storage project is delayed because COVID-19 restrictions in China have set back battery shipments. (Danville Register & Bee)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Oklahoma loses out on its aggressive bid for a Panasonic battery factory when the company announces it will build in Kansas instead. (KOCO, Daily Journal)
• A company announces it will take possession of a West Virginia industrial building next month, with plans to begin manufacturing electric school buses by the end of 2023. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh touts Tennessee’s growing role in the electric vehicle industry during a visit to a General Motors EV battery factory under construction. (Tennessean)
• An Alabama city announces it will soon add the state’s first electric garbage truck. (WALA)
BIOGAS: North Carolina regulators approve general biogas permits for livestock operations allowing them to skip water quality review and public hearings when installing anaerobic digesters to produce biogas. (Southerly)
COAL: Texas residents protest a coal-fired plant that continues operating despite conversations about transitioning to less carbon-intensive energy. (KXAN)
UTILITIES:
• Alabama Power announces its bills will be going up an average of 5% due to rising fuel costs. (Gadsden Times)
• A Louisiana regulator asks residents to tweet their frustrations about high Entergy power bills to him, although he says there’s no easy solution. (WBRZ)
• A transformer shortage hampers a Florida municipal utility’s ability to keep up with the pace of residential development. (WJAX)
CLIMATE:
• Dozens of southwestern Virginia residents are unaccounted for after torrential rain caused flooding. (Cardinal News, Washington Post)
• Developers keep building homes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, even as rising sea levels and storms threaten to wash them away. (Yale Environment 360)
POLITICS: The Biden administration considers abandoning a climate pledge and greelighting more oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska as it negotiates with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on a climate funding package. (Washington Post)
OIL & GAS:
• A gas company buys gas production facilities on 5,000 acres in the Haynesville Shale area in Louisiana as it seeks to shore up supplies for a proposed liquified natural gas terminal. (S&P Global)
• Oil and gas interests criticize President Joe Biden for traveling to the Middle East when they say he should focus on doing more to encourage domestic oil production. (Fox Business)
COMMENTARY:
• North Carolina regulators should reduce carbon emission by prioritizing dispatchable energy resources such as natural gas and nuclear over wind and solar, writes an analyst with a conservative think tank. (Carolina Journal)
• A syndicated columnist praises one of President Joe Biden’s nominees to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority as a “solid choice” who will represent Mississippi’s interests. (Meridian Star)
More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West