CLEAN ENERGY: The construction of an iron-air battery factory in West Virginia epitomizes a new wave of clean energy development that includes electric vehicle and solar panel factories being built in the Southeast. (Canary Media)

ALSO: Texas lawmakers boosted natural gas plants in this year’s session but declined to pass a series of bills that could have upended the state’s massive renewables sector. (Texas Tribune; Wall Street Journal, subscription)

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SOLAR:
• North Carolina regulators push back the start date for changes to net metering rules to reduce what solar owners get paid and to add a new $10 monthly fee for customers with solar panels. (WFAE)
• A Florida college partners with a solar center on the first solar energy apprenticeship program to be registered with the U.S. Labor Department. (WFTS)

PIPELINES:
• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials say the long-delayed project should be completed later this year, after Congress passed a provision of the debt limit deal that dismisses current legal challenges to its permits. (WV News)
• Residents along the Mountain Valley Pipeline worry about damage to streams and express safety concerns now that construction has been greenlit again. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

GRID:
• Dominion Energy moves to implement a multiyear, $2.2 billion-and-counting grid modernization plan to accommodate growing demand from the booming data center sector, plans for vehicle electrification, and the push for solar and wind farms. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• The head of Texas’ power grid regulatory board resigns after lawmakers fail to approve a plan to help the state grid withstand weather disasters because they said it didn’t do enough to boost fossil fuels. (Texas Tribune)

OIL & GAS:  Environmentalists push insurers to stop covering liquefied natural gas terminals along the Gulf Coast. (E&E News, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Teslas account for two-thirds of new electric vehicles registered in North Carolina, which rose 14% in the first quarter of 2023. (Winston-Salem Journal)

BUILDINGS: Some of Florida’s real estate market trends toward sustainability as communities adopt more natural design elements and pressure contractors to adhere to more green construction practices and build more energy efficient homes. (Invading Sea)

CLIMATE:
• Experts point to Hurricane Ian’s record-setting damage as evidence Florida still isn’t prepared for severe hurricanes and the devastating storm surges that accompany them. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Researchers find temperatures in a metro Florida county run an average of six degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the official daily temperatures recorded at an airport. (Miami Herald)

EMISSIONS: Texas lawmakers approve legislation to raise maximum daily fine amounts for pollution violations to $40,000 per day from a previous level of $25,000. (Public Health Watch)

COMMENTARY:
• A solar advocate calls for Florida lawmakers to protect net metering and ease the way for state residents to adopt more solar and battery power to reduce hurricane-related blackouts. (Florida Times-Union)
• Florida’s growing electric vehicle industry offers new college graduates job opportunities likely to grow as the sector matures, write an electrification advocate and a researcher. (Invading Sea)

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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.