TRANSITION: A clean energy firm’s analysis finds Duke Energy spends twice as much money operating its six North Carolina coal-fired power plants than it would replacing them with solar. (Energy News Network)

OIL & GAS:
• Increasing drilling in west Texas’ oil patch coincides with hundreds of earthquakes per year now in a region not previously known for seismic activity. (New York Times)
• A study finds eight Louisiana oil refineries are some of the worst in the country for discharging heavy metals, nitrogen and other pollutants into waterways. (NOLA.com)
• The largely Gulf Coast-based natural gas industry lobbies to position itself as a “bridge fuel” to clean energy even as it leaks greenhouse gases at every stage of production and distribution. (Canary Media)
• Texas’ regulator warns oil and gas pipeline operators to secure their facilities ahead of ice and sleet in the forecast. (Reuters)

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STORAGE:
• West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice touts an iron-air battery manufacturer’s planned factory in the state while a state lawmaker questions its investors’ ties to China and Saudi Arabia. (WV Metro News)
• A South Korean electric vehicle battery maker announces a tech support center in Georgia to support its expanding operations across the U.S. (WSB-TV)

CARBON CAPTURE: A Texas company that emerged from bankruptcy just a few years ago stands to benefit from carbon-capture tax credits in the federal climate package. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Georgia’s aggressive pursuit of electric vehicle and battery manufacturing hinges largely on state and federal funding. (Georgia Recorder)
• Arkansas-based electric vehicle maker Canoo secures a deal to sell its vehicles in Saudi Arabia. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Louisiana State University adds nine electric vehicle charging stations on campus. (Reveille)

GRID:
• Entergy builds elevated substations and reinforced power poles to face storms made worse by climate change on a particularly vulnerable Louisiana barrier island. (NOLA.com)
• Experts blame the Southeast’s grid problems during last month’s cold snap on bad power forecasting, fossil fuel plant failures and gas shortages. (States Newsroom)
• Experts from a conservative think tank and Southeast renewables association discuss causes and potential solutions for the rolling blackouts that hit the Carolinas last month. (Carolina Journal)
• Two Arkansas transformer manufacturers announce expansions amid a spike in demand. (Arkansas Business)

UTILITIES:
• Florida Power & Light shut off power to ratepayers 1.4 million times between 2020 and 2021, but the state isn’t ranked in a new analysis of power cutoffs because Florida no longer requires utilities to track disconnections. (Guardian)
• Customer advocates call for more attention to the West Virginia activities of a utility currently under investigation in Ohio. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)

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POLITICS:
• A Republican North Carolina U.S. representative who leads a key committee faces pressure from far-right members to go after climate-minded investment firms. (E&E News)
• Officials in a Florida city worry lawmakers might pass legislation giving the state more control over municipal utilities. (Tallahassee Democrat)

COMMENTARY: Duke Energy’s carbon plan relies too much on natural gas and unproven nuclear power and hydrogen technology while continuing to worsen public health and climate impacts in vulnerable communities, write two climate justice advocates. (Charlotte Observer)

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Mason Adams

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.