COAL ASH: Citizen scientists say they’ve confirmed coal ash from a Puerto Rico power plant is contaminating drinking water, but despite promises from the U.S. EPA, residents say they won’t be satisfied until the plant is closed and its coal ash is removed. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR:
• Arkansas solar installers rev up business ahead of a 2024 change that will reduce net-metering rates. (Arkansas Business)
• Virginia solar developers eye a city’s plan to build a solar farm on a former landfill as a model that can be replicated elsewhere across the state. (WVTF)
• A Virginia town wins a “SolSmart” designation indicating it’s removed regulatory barriers that add time and cost to solar installations. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The federal climate package and South Carolina officials’ patience with an industrial site helped it edge out Mississippi to win Scout Motors’ $2 billion electric vehicle factory. (Post and Courier)
• Arkansas regulators approve Entergy’s plan to build a dozen electric vehicle chargers along interstates. (Arkansas Business)

BUILDINGS: As a North Carolina home builders trade group tries to block modernization of the state’s energy efficiency standards, one business takes the issue as a selling point to customers. (WFAE)

GRID:
• A report commissioned by South Carolina lawmakers calls for electric market and transmission reforms, including creating or joining an organization to run the electric grid. (States Newsroom)
• Texas’ grid manager warns extreme weather events could test the grid and trigger brownouts during peak summer demand. (San Antonio Express-News)
• Appalachian Power plans to build a new substation and power lines at a Virginia industrial park that hasn’t yet attracted any tenants. (Cardinal News)

OIL & GAS: A rural Florida town with a thriving Black community and plans for developing its tourism and real estate industries finds it’s now being targeted for a liquified natural gas plant on the site of a former paper mill. (Inside Climate News)

WIND: An energy company develops a 180 MW wind farm in northwest Arkansas. (Arkansas Business)

UTILITY:
• The head of a utility company announces it will move from North Carolina to Louisiana to take advantage of an expected shift in transmission and distribution infrastructure spending in coming years. (NOLA.com)
• The head of an Arkansas electric cooperative discusses tornado recovery and vehicle electrification. (Arkansas Business)

POLITICS:
• Voters in El Paso, Texas, reject a ballot initiative to prioritize policies designed to address climate change. (El Paso Matters)
• Republican candidate for Kentucky governor Kelly Craft has attacked the GOP attorney general — a fellow gubernatorial candidate — for supporting closing a West Virginia coal-fired power plant while Craft’s husband’s coal company has a contract with the plant. (Kentucky Lantern)
• Well-financed lobbyists for various interest groups contributed to the failure of bills designed to curb pollution and carbon emissions during the Virginia legislative session. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COMMENTARY: An editorial board criticizes Florida lawmakers for considering legislation to increase energy costs by allowing the state to take over municipal utilities and by allowing cost recovery on expensive hydrogen and renewable natural gas facilities. (Orlando Sentinel)

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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.