SOLAR: A solar panel manufacturer announces it will invest $33 million to build its first U.S. factory in South Carolina. (The State)

ALSO:
• A Virginia town sets a third public hearing for a proposed 5 MW solar farm after its planning commission recommends against rezoning. (News & Record)
• A Virginia county considers amending its solar ordinance to place an acreage cap on solar development and increase the buffer distance between solar farms from 1 mile to 5 miles. (WDBJ)
• A Texas company upgrades a nine-year-old 4.4 MW Texas solar farm with a new tracking system because the previous version suffered from mechanical failures. (PV Magazine)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Volkswagen dashes Oklahoma’s hopes when it chooses to instead build an electric vehicle battery plant in Ontario, Canada. (Oklahoman)
• Electric vehicle maker Rivian negotiates with Amazon to end their exclusive delivery van deal after Amazon’s 2023 order comes in at the low end of their agreed-upon range. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Wall Street Journal, subscription)
• Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves considers signing legislation to require electric vehicle companies sell cars through dealerships rather than directly to consumers. (WLBT)

WIND: Shell announces it will invest $10 million into an accelerator program to develop wind turbine rotors to operate in challenging wind conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. (Biz New Orleans)

OIL & GAS: Congressional Republicans introduce sweeping energy legislation to jump start fossil fuel production in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, including a provision to increase royalties for states that could translate to billions more for Louisiana coastal restoration. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, NOLA.com)

GEOTHERMAL: An energy company plans to build a geothermal energy plant near Houston, Texas, in a town where a coal plant is set to close in 2027. (Victoria Advocate)

COAL:
• Duke Energy’s staggered schedule to retire its coal-fired power plants leave it unclear exactly how they’ll be affected by the EPA’s newly proposed discharge rules. (NC Policy Watch)
• West Virginia lawmakers fail to pass a bill to create a public corporation to encourage energy development in the state’s coalfields. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)
• West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin cites grid reliability concerns as he requests the U.S. EPA delay its proposed “Good Neighbor Rule” to require a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and other facilities. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

NUCLEAR: The looming completion of Georgia Power’s expansion of nuclear Plant Vogtle renews the long-running debate over how fission should play into America’s energy future. (HuffPost)

GRID:
• Residents of a Mississippi city complain they continue to regularly lose power weeks after an ice storm, spurring a state senator to file a bill allowing residents outside the city limits to leave the local utility. (WHBQ)
• Texas lawmakers introduce bills to dramatically reduce wind and solar generation while using taxpayer money to incentivize construction of natural gas power plants. (KUT)
• Appalachian Power sets two open houses to provide information and receive input on its plan to rebuild about 11 miles of electric transmission line in Virginia. (Bristol Herald Courier)

HYDROELECTRIC: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians presses to remove an aging hydroelectric dam to reconnect river habitats. (WFAE)

TRANSPORTATION: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport receives $35 million in federal funding to revamp its utilities plant to run on renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. (Dallas Innovates)

COMMENTARY: An energy columnist notes crowds for hydrogen, geothermal and other emerging, clean energy-related panels at a Texas energy conference, while attendance lags for oil and gas. (Houston Chronicle)

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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.