SOLAR: Clean energy advocates press North Carolina regulators to suspend recently approved net metering rules that would tie solar owners’ compensation to grid demand, arguing they’ll devalue rooftop systems. (Winston-Salem Journal)

ALSO:
• A Virginia planning commission recommends approving permits for 2 MW and nearby 5 MW solar energy facilities. (Virginian-Pilot)
• Homeowners who’ve installed rooftop solar systems since Hurricane Ian say their insurance providers are unexpectedly dropping their coverage. (WBBH)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A company announces it will break ground in South Carolina next month on a  $810 million electric vehicle battery factory to support a nearby BMW plant. (Post and Courier)
• Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University partners with an energy company to transition its shuttle fleet entirely to electric vehicles. (news release)
• A Vietnamese automaker building an electric vehicle factory in North Carolina receives snark-filled negative reviews for its new electric SUV model. (News & Observer)

POLITICS:
• Texas lawmakers consider reviving Texas’ largest corporate tax break program but would strip wind and solar from consideration. (Houston Chronicle)
• Renewed momentum for permitting reform in Congress could lead to final approvals for completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (WOWK)

COAL:
• A new study shows Georgia’s greenhouse emissions declined 5% from 2017 to 2021, driven largely by a 15% decrease in power plant emissions as Georgia Power phases out coal. (Georgia Recorder)
• A coal company notifies more than 200 workers of pending layoffs as it winds down a West Virginia coal mine and plant ahead of closure. (Inter-Mountain)
• Alabama regulators say a coal coking company has failed to pay nearly $300,000 in fines and penalties over air pollution violations. (AL.com)
• Republicans U.S. Rep. Carol Miller of West Virginia and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia will co-chair the newly formed Congressional Coal Caucus. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

EFFICIENCY: A Florida county seeks an injunction to block a company from doing business after customers complained they weren’t warned taking loans for low-and-moderate income homeowners to make energy improvements would affect their property taxes. (Palm Beach Post)

BIOFUELS:
• A Louisiana company builds a l​​arger production facility to process bagasse, the crop residue left after sugarcane is crushed, into biochar as others consider its possible role in biomass slurry injection. (The Advocate)
• West Virginia University researchers receive a renewed grant to develop mathematical models predicting how bioenergy crops will enhance and store soil carbon. (news release)

UTILITIES: Entergy shrugs off the U.S. EPA’s proposed rule to crack down on coal-fired power plant emissions, saying it won’t require much from its coal fleet because they’re being phased out by 2030 anyway. (NOLA.com)

FINANCE: Representatives from investment firm BlackRock meet with Oklahoma officials to discuss the state’s 2022 law blocking public investments from going to companies with environmental, social and governance investing policies. (Journal Record)

COMMENTARY: Georgia Power’s long-delayed, $35 billion expansion of its nuclear Plant Vogtle should be a warning against promises that small modular reactors will make nuclear affordable, writes a climate activist and candidate for Georgia regulator. (Utility Dive)

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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.