SOLAR: Southern Co. warns that nearly a gigawatt of its planned solar projects could be delayed by a year because of supply chain disruptions and the threat of new U.S. tariffs on panel imports from Southeast Asia. (Reuters)

ALSO:
• Virginia and Appalachian solar developers fret as the nation’s largest grid operator puts a two-year pause on reviewing and approving 1,200 mostly solar projects that are part of a backlog. (Inside Climate News)
• A Virginia county sees three solar facilities under development and a fourth in planning phases after government leaders countered concerns about land use by asking for revenue sharing or upfront fees. (Virginia Business)

OIL & GAS:
• West Texas saw 59 earthquakes in the first three months of 2022, fueling worries that hydraulic fracking has stressed fault lines and is turning America’s oil-drilling capital into its earthquake capital. (Bloomberg)
• An oil company makes 101 job offers at a hiring event as it looks to staff up amid high oil prices. (KETK)

UTILITIES: As Memphis, Tennessee, nears a decision on naming a power provider, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s CEO warns that leaving the utility poses reliability risks that could cost the city beyond mere power rates. (Commercial Appeal)

POLITICS:
• Texas struggles to implement a law to divest from financial firms that shy away from fossil fuels because of loopholes, exceptions and executives who say they plan to ignore “politically motivated” letters from the state. (NPR/Floodlight)
• Oklahoma lawmakers pass a bill to require the state to divest from financial firms that steer investments from fossil fuels and the energy industry. (KFOR)
• Florida’s rooftop solar industry worries that a just-vetoed measure to end net-metering will return in the state’s next legislative session. (Spectrum News)
• A recently rebooted West Virginia energy board hears proposals to invest in carbon capture to extend the life of coal-fired power plants and to implement grid-scale battery storage. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

WIND: Texas county leaders and residents worry a proposed wind farm will affect real estate values between two recently built lakes. (KTRE, North Texas e-News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Hybrid and electric vehicle owners express frustration over 30 states that charge extra annual fees to offset gas taxes, including a Kentucky fee of $70 for hybrids and $150 for electric cars. (WTVR)
• Electric vehicle maker Rivian cuts a deal with a solar company to use 1 MW from a Tennessee solar farm to power its EV chargers in the region. (dot.LA)
• U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin calls a proposal to expand electric vehicle tax credits “ludicrous,” creating a new obstacle in the Biden administration’s climate plans. (Bloomberg)

COAL: A group of 20 South Carolina electric cooperatives decline to help state-owned utility Santee Cooper replace a coal-fired plant with natural gas, saying they want to analyze other power supply options. (Post and Courier)

CARBON CAPTURE: Experts tell Congress that federal regulators must develop liability rules if the carbon capture industry is going to use offshore carbon injection wells. (S&P Global)

GRID:
• A NextEra Energy subsidiary wins a bid to build a nearly 50-mile Oklahoma transmission project, which analysts say might be one of the final competitive processes for such projects given a recent proposal to give utilities the right of first refusal. (Utility Dive)
• A Mississippi official sets a public hearing for Entergy’s proposed grid improvements. (DeSoto Times-Tribune)

BIOGAS: A Texas landfill partners with a waste management agency and energy company to develop a renewable natural gas plant. (KAGS)

COMMENTARY:  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was right to veto a bill to end rooftop solar subsidies that would have gutted the state’s rooftop solar industry, writes an editorial board. (Tampa Bay Times)

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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.