SOLAR: North Carolina regulators approve Duke Energy’s plan to reduce what it pays commercial rooftop solar customers in Asheville, Raleigh and the eastern part of the state, and now are considering making the same changes in the rest of the state. (WFAE)

ALSO:
• NextEra will hold a public meeting next week to inform residents about its plans to build a solar farm on 2,057 acres in a Louisiana town. (Plaquemine Post South)
• A Virginia county considers approving a permit for a proposed 50 MW solar farm. (Winchester Star)
• A Virginia town considers its rules governing community-scale solar projects after previously voting down a proposed 5 MW solar facility. (South Boston News & Record)

OIL & GAS:
• Dominion Energy sells its three gas utilities to a Canadian pipeline company for $14 billion to create North America’s largest natural gas provider. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Reuters)
• Markets suggest lower natural gas prices will continue into the fall, weakening wholesale power prices in the Southeast. (S&P Global)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Labor activists launch an effort to organize workers at electric vehicle factories in Alabama and Georgia. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
• A Georgia company will build a 39 MW solar farm to power Toyota’s Alabama factory, which eventually will source 70% of its power from solar. (news release)
• Texas begins charging electric vehicle drivers an annual $200 registration fee, offering one example of how states are trying to replace declining gas tax revenue in the EV transition. (Governing)

PIPELINES: A Tennessee town approves a resolution opposing the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to build a new natural gas-fired power plant and pipeline and a battery storage plant to replace a retiring coal plant. (Cheatham County Exchange)

STORAGE: Texas’ 1.6 GW of battery storage has helped keep the state power grid working through high temperatures and demand this summer, but operators are concerned the state grid manager will limit the batteries’ output. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID: Duke Energy submits a report to North Carolina regulators outlining its need to improve electric substations, power lines and other grid infrastructure to adapt to extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. (Winston-Salem Journal)

CLEAN ENERGY:
• Local officials in Kentucky, Florida and two other states scramble to apply for federal climate funding or find workarounds after their respective states decided to forgo the money. (Sierra)
• A South Carolina Congress member announces $2.6 million in federal funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements in the state’s rural communities. (WCIV)

NUCLEAR: Georgia regulators set a schedule of pivotal hearings to decide how much Georgia Power’s customers will pay for its long-delayed, over-budget expansion at nuclear Plant Vogtle. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

BUILDINGS: A University of Miami team conducts a program for building managers and owners to measure and boost their energy and water efficiency. (Miami Herald)

CARBON CAPTURE: A global consortium that includes a Korean steel company is named as a “preferred bidder” expected to win a contract to build a massive carbon capture facility near Corpus Christi, Texas. (Korean Economic Daily)

COMMENTARY: A local dispute over industrial solar development in Kentucky has been clouded by family connections and dueling conflicts of interest, writes an editorial board. (News-Enterprise)

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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.