WIND: President Joe Biden’s directive to “advance clean energy development” in federal waters off Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas doesn’t end uncertainty over a Trump-era ban on offshore wind in the region. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• The Biden administration announces offshore wind farms near Louisiana and Texas, including one with potential to power 2.3 million homes. (Texas Tribune)
• Panelists at a North Carolina offshore wind summit conclude the impacts from developing large-scale offshore wind energy will be a trade-off against extreme weather and other impacts of climate change. (Coastal Review)

UTILITIES:
• Georgia regulators approve Georgia Power’s 20-year plan but add requirements for more battery storage and biomass while rejecting a proposed expansion of the utility’s rooftop solar program. (Capitol Beat News Service, Associated Press)
• Environmental and clean energy groups challenge Duke Energy’s North Carolina decarbonization plan as too reliant on natural gas over solar, wind and battery storage. (Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• A Virginia county approves a solar ordinance that establishes setback distances but doesn’t cap the amount of land that can be used for solar farms. (Roanoke Times)
• A new report shows North Carolina falling further behind Florida in installed solar capacity with Georgia on track to surpass it by 2025. (WFAE)
• A tangle of tax exemptions, credits, rights and utility programs face Virginia homeowners looking to invest in rooftop solar arrays, but a solar marketplace projects the average system pays for itself in 12 years. (Virginia Mercury)

GRID: Texas grid officials say the state has broken records for power demand 11 times this summer, briefly exceeding 80,000 megawatts this week for the first time amid an ongoing heat wave. (Houston Public Media)

OIL & GAS:
• Federal regulators say they’ll inspect a liquified natural gas export plant in September, three months after a fire resulted in its closure and sent shock waves through natural gas markets. (Reuters)
• Shell hires an investment bank as it looks to sell its stake in two Gulf of Mexico oil fields for $1.5 billion. (NOLA.com)
• An energy consultancy group names the U.S. Gulf Coast and Permian Basin as “super basins” well prepared for the future with ample reserves and access to solar and wind power generation and carbon capture technology. (Journal of Petroleum Technology)
• Federal assessments show the Delaware and Midland areas of the Permian Basin contain enough oil for about nine years of America’s oil consumption — not 200 years as falsely claimed in a viral Facebook post. (USA Today)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Federal officials name two Georgia highways as “alternative fuel corridors” for priority in building electric vehicle chargers. (Capitol Beat News Service)

BIOMASS: A North Carolina county considers adding a new biomass section to its land use ordinance after a company contacts county officials about permitting a facility. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A Texas grid official projects crypto miners will consume 18 GW in coming years — nearly a quarter of the state grid’s current capacity. (NBC News)

COMMENTARY: Georgia Power’s long term plan as approved by state regulators includes wins on energy efficiency and coal plant retirements, but still contains unknowns on net metering and transmission planning, write four clean energy analysts. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)

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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.