SOLAR: A company that makes solar-powered roof shingles expands into Virginia, offering homeowners a way to incorporate solar power even in hyper-regulated planned communities with strict homeowner association rules. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• Toyota announces the construction of a 30 MW solar farm to power its engine manufacturing plant in Alabama. (AL.com)
• An energy company withdraws a permit request for a 5 MW solar farm in western Virginia, pending a county’s update to its comprehensive plan. (Roanoke Times)
• A Virginia town council considers a 5 MW solar farm that received a positive recommendation from its planning commission. (Gazette-Virginian)

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CARBON CAPTURE: Louisiana lawmakers respond to a local backlash against proposed carbon capture projects by proposing statewide rules to restrict the technology or block it in some places altogether. (The Advocate)

COAL:
• West Virginia regulators grant a hearing for a utility that wants to operate a coal-fired power plant for a year before determining whether to purchase it. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• Environmental groups threaten to sue federal and Kentucky regulators for failing to enforce rules to protect a threatened crayfish from pollution caused by surface mining. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

PIPELINES:
• Transportation regulators finalize a federal order with a company three years after its carbon dioxide pipeline ruptured in a Mississippi town and released 31,000 barrels of CO2, sending numerous people to the hospital. (Associated Press)
• Federal officials award $3.8 million to improve natural gas pipelines in West Virginia. (WBOY)

STORAGE:
• Texas city officials question an energy company’s request to build a 100 MW battery energy storage site on farmland. (My RGV)
• Duke Energy’s new 11 MW battery facility at a U.S. Marine base in North Carolina marks a step toward its goal of building 1,900 MW of battery storage by 2029. (Energy Storage News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Officials in a North Carolina city press to add four new electric vehicles and a pair of charging stations to the municipal fleet. (Winston-Salem Journal)

GRID: A Florida city challenges state regulators’ approval of a Duke Energy high-voltage power line that officials say could disrupt their water supply. (WFTV)

POLITICS: As West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announces he’ll run for governor, critics say his lawsuits targeting federal carbon emissions regulations have damaged the state’s path to a clean energy future. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

CLIMATE:
• Arkansas’ hilly, forested terrain and high number of mobile homes earn it the title of “tornado fatality alley” as climate change has boosted the number of tornadoes in the mid-South. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A new book considers the disconnect between Charleston, South Carolina’s reputation for warm hospitality with its lack of planning for Black and low-income residents displaced by flooding and rising seas. (New York Times)

COMMENTARY:
• Florida should block utilities from taking over networks of electric vehicle chargers to allow convenience stores and gas stations an opportunity to offer the service, writes the president of a gas station chain. (Florida Times-Union)
• The decade-long process for Dominion Energy to plan and prepare to begin construction of its offshore wind farm next year shows why Virginia should start planning for its next offshore wind farm now, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

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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.