SOLAR:
• Solar energy projects continue to draw opposition in North Carolina, but they have also become a financial boon to rural communities. (News & Record) 
• A solar nonprofit helps demystify the buying process and get better deals by bundling customers, including in Texas, Florida, and Virginia. (Canary Media)

UTILITIES:
• Duke Energy proposes a green tariff program in South Carolina that would provide commercial customers access to 24/7 clean energy. (Utility Dive)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority is sued for an electrocution death in September 2021 at its Bull Run coal-fired power plant. (Tennessee Lookout)
• Austin’s city council is set to vote on two rate hikes this week for its municipal utility to cover the growing cost of natural gas at its power plants, as well as to pay for new infrastructure to keep up with the city’s growing population. (KXAN)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• West Virginia will receive $45 million in federal funds to install more than 900 public charging ports, creating “seamless trip planning.” (Herald Dispatch)
• Virginia will receive $38 million from the same federal program to focus on installing electric vehicle charging in interstate corridors, then statewide highways. (Times-Dispatch)
• Alabama electric vehicle owners have an opportunity to test their rides Saturday on a racing track that hosts IndyCar races. (WVTM)

WIND: Students from a Virginia Beach college wind turbine technician program tour Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt wind farm 27 miles off the coast. (WAVY)

GEOTHERMAL: University of Oklahoma students win a $10,000 prize for designing a system that would repurpose abandoned oil and gas wells to provide geothermal energy to several public buildings. (news release) 

BIOFUELS: The owner of a Miami biodiesel business and another man are arrested for allegedly stealing used cooking oil from Florida restaurants. (First Coast News) 

COMMENTARY:
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s claims that electric vehicles are a threat to the state’s electric grid suggest a shocking pessimism and lack of confidence in the state’s ability to adapt to the future, two state lawmakers write. (Times-Dispatch)
• A columnist writes that Dominion Energy shouldn’t be able to insist on an “all-profit, no-risk” approach to building its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. (Virginia Mercury)

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

Dan has two decades' experience working in print, digital and broadcast media. Prior to joining the Energy News Network as managing editor in December 2017, he oversaw watchdog reporting at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, part of the USA Today Network, and before that spent several years as a freelance journalist covering energy, business and technology. Dan is a former Midwest Energy News journalism fellow and a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communications from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.