GRID: A report determines a Texas proposal to pay generators to remain available during grid emergencies could increase wholesale electricity costs by $22.5 billion from 2025 to 2030. (Canary Media)

BIOMASS: South Georgia activists call for a judge to revoke a state air permit for one of two wood pellet plants planned for a community consisting largely of people of color who face industrial pollution from multiple sources. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

PIPELINES:
• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials rail at a federal court that’s repeatedly struck down its permits, and call for Congress to pass legislation to force completion of the long-delayed, over-budget pipeline. (Roanoke Times)
• North Carolina farmers and landowners celebrate the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s dismissal of eminent domain proceedings along its planned Southgate extension, although pipeline officials insist they’ve “not abandoned this project.” (Winston-Salem Journal)

SOLAR:
• More Florida residents look to solar to lower their bills and ensure their power stays on after hurricanes, but feel targeted by utilities who impose fees and back legislation to make it harder to install rooftop systems. (WPLG)
• Google officials contract 942 MW of power from four solar projects under development in Texas. (Renewables Now)
• A steel company announces it will build a solar farm as part of its new rebar steel mill in Arkansas. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

OIL & GAS:
• Halliburton’s CEO says “exponential” growth in the Permian Basin is ending as companies restrain their activity to please investors enjoying high profits from rising prices. (The National)
• Federal regulators seek public input on a gas company’s plan to build and operate two new gas storage wells, plug and abandon more than 5,000 feet of pipeline, and construct 586 feet of new pipeline in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• To replace retiring coal units, South Carolina state-owned utility Santee Cooper plans to build a 338 MW natural-gas plant that can eventually be transitioned to hydrogen and will supplement new solar and battery generation. (news release)

HYDROGEN: Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority and other major utilities form a coalition to pursue a hydrogen hub for the Southeast. (Offshore Energy)

CLIMATE: Historically low water levels along the Mississippi River result in supply chain backups as barges and ships wait to pass through. (Paducah Sun)

POLITICS: Seventeen localities in Virginia’s coastal Hampton Roads region oppose Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempts to withdraw the state from a regional carbon market, as they rely on it for flood protection funding. (WHRO)

COMMENTARY:
• A Louisiana editorial board calls for continued production of oil and natural gas until supply meets global demand and energy prices decrease. (NOLA.com)
• Local and state West Virginia governments must work closely with the federal government to ensure $140 million for cleaning up abandoned coal mines and oil and gas wells is spent effectively, writes an editorial board. (Parkersburg News and 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.