SOLAR: A South Carolina county board approves a tax break for a $150 million solar panel plant set to create 800 jobs. (Post and Courier)

ALSO: Louisiana residents oppose a proposed NextEra solar farm on 2,057 acres, in part over fears of hurting the centuries-old sugarcane industry. (Plaquemine Post South)

STORAGE: A Canadian company buys 118 acres of Arkansas timberland to build a $1.3 billion lithium extraction and refinement plant. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

GRID:
• Outdated transmission lines hamper Georgia’s transition to renewables, and upgrading those lines is becoming more complicated. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)
• The CEO of Texas’ grid manager gives the grid’s performance this summer “a strong A” for maintaining the flow of power despite high temperatures and breaking the all-time demand record 10 times. (Houston Chronicle)

CARBON CAPTURE: The Tennessee Valley Authority launches a study of carbon capture technology at natural gas-fired power plants in Kentucky and Mississippi. (WKMS)

COAL:
• Alabama environmental and community groups sue a coal company owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice for discharging pollutants into a stream that exceed what’s permitted. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• After approving coal ash disposal plans for Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas, the U.S. EPA rejects Alabama’s coal ash plans for not doing enough to protect groundwater and the public. (WABM)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: Kentucky regulators approve more than $2.5 million in electricity discounts from Kentucky Power to a crypto mining operation. (Kentucky Lantern)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A newly filed bill in the Florida legislature would impose a $200 annual fee for electric vehicles that would rise to $250 by 2029, with an extra $50 for plug-in hybrids. (WKMG)

NUCLEAR: Leaders from 16 southern states meet in South Carolina to discuss how to meet growing power demand in the fast-growing region, perhaps with nuclear energy. (WHNS)

OIL & GAS: An Oklahoma-based oil and gas company acquires $1.2 billion in assets in the Permian Basin. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

EMISSIONS: A West Virginia group is part of a new lawsuit against the U.S. EPA for missing a deadline to issue new standards for facilities that emit ethylene oxide. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

CLIMATE: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency announces a new loan program for small-scale climate adaptation projects, beginning with a pilot program in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and four more states. (Grist)

UTILITIES: Entergy announces $500,000 for a new financial assistance program to help New Orleans residents with disabilities and those over the age of 60 pay their power bills. (news release)

COMMENTARY:
• North Carolina lawmakers should set aside funding for more electric school buses, writes a broadcasting company. (WRAL)
• A metro Florida county should continue its longstanding partnership with a group that helps state residents pay for home improvements to enhance energy efficiency and storm-hardening, writes a member of the partnership. (Miami Herald)
• The shift to solar power and electric vehicles delivers an overlooked side benefit by undermining “the expensive and wasteful ethanol industry,” writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

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.