TRANSITION: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper criticizes Duke Energy’s emission reduction plans for relying too much on new nuclear power instead of wind and solar. (Raleigh News & Observer)

GRID: 

SOLAR: 

COAL ASH: Dominion Energy tells Virginia regulators it has begun to remove toxic coal ash from a power plant and is recycling some into concrete. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

OIL & GAS: 

WIND: The first monopiles for Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project near Virginia begin to arrive. (Project Cargo Journal)

HYDROGEN: The Tennessee Valley Authority moves ahead with its plans to develop hydrogen at a former coal plant in Tennessee despite the project’s failure to win federal support. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

NUCLEAR: After Virginia officials identify seven potential sites to build a small modular nuclear reactor, local residents worry they’ll be left out of the planning process until it’s too late. (Cardinal News)

POLLUTION: Residents of a largely Black North Carolina community push for cleanup of approximately 70 years of municipal, industrial and toxic waste left behind by an aluminum plant that closed in 2007. (WFAE)

COMMENTARY: 

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.