TRANSPORTATION: North Carolina advocates criticize a state program to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions for its lack of urgency and specific directives, especially with regard to a state law that prioritizes highway construction. (Energy News Network)

EFFICIENCY: A new study singles out the Tennessee Valley Authority for trailing all other major Southeast utilities in helping customers reduce their energy consumption, even as the region as a whole lags the rest of the country. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, WFAE)

Sponsored Link
2023 State Energy Conference of North Carolina
Receive continuing education credits, learn about new energy solutions and best practices, and network with over 800 attendees at the 2023 State Energy Conference of North Carolina, April 25-26, in Raleigh N.C. Learn more and register at www.NCenergyconference.com

SOLAR: Vice President Kamala Harris will visit a Georgia solar panel factory that’s set to expand as she touts President Biden’s economic agenda. (WXIA; Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

EMISSIONS: West Virginia University researchers receive $5.5 million in federal funding to study methane leaks from storage tanks. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)

BIOGAS: A North Carolina county tables a decision on Smithfield Foods’ request for a permit to build two large swine gas projects with a bio-energy company. (NC Policy Watch)

OIL & GAS: An energy company looks to double down on oil and gas in the Permian Basin as it nears a deal to acquire a private equity firm’s exploration and production assets in the region. (Reuters)

GRID: West Virginia residents contest the location of a planned Appalachian Power substation. (WV MetroNews)

UTILITIES:
• The general manager of Austin, Texas’ municipal utility retires two months after widespread power outages that prompted anger and the related firing of the city manager. (Laredo Morning Times)
• Kentucky officials ask federal regulators to deny American Electric Power’s $2.65 billion sale of its Kentucky operations to Algonquin Power. (Utility Dive)

CLIMATE:
• At least 12 people in Tennessee and five in Arkansas are dead after tornadoes tore through Arkansas. (WKRN, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Virginia shifts the rules in a land conservation program to allow some coastal residents easier access to funding to address shoreline erosion. (Virginia Mercury)
• Experts say climate change is affecting tornadoes in the U.S., resulting in fewer storms in Plains states while the Midwest and mid-South are seeing an increase. (Miami Herald)

Sponsored Link
The Nation’s Premier Electric Transportation Event
Forth Roadmap Conference, May 15-17, 2023 in Portland, Oregon
Connect with industry professionals in mobility, government, utilities, OEMs and nonprofits – all with a shared focus on advancing equitable transportation electrification. Register Now!

POLITICS:
• West Virginia politics is mired in connections to Ohio’s FirstEnergy bribery case, including an effort to bail out a coal-fired power plant. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• A Democratic North Carolina lawmaker introduces a bill in the Republican-majority state legislature to require new houses be built with circuits capable of accommodating a Level 2 electric vehicle charger. (Wilmington StarNews)

COMMENTARY:
• The world must reduce carbon emissions if Louisiana is to slow its loss of coastal areas to rising seas, which already is happening nearly three times faster than the national average, writes a columnist. (NOLA.com)
• Louisiana braces for a metaphorical “coastal cliff” in 2032, when funding from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill will expire and leave a shortfall for state hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects, writes an editorial board. (NOLA.com)
• Texas lawmakers should restore a provision to state legislation to pay off more than $3.5 billion in debt racked up by gas utilities during the 2021 winter storm, which would relieve pressure on ratepayers, writes a member of a state consumer advocacy group. (Austin American-Statesman)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

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.