PIPELINES: Federal regulators’ four-year extension for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to complete construction sparks outrage from Appalachian and Indigenous activists and residents who have been fighting it for eight years. (Roanoke Times, Washington Post)
OIL & GAS:
• Texas bans 10 banks and 348 investment funds from doing business with the state under a 2021 law because its comptroller says that they don’t support the oil and gas industry. (Texas Tribune, S&P Global)
• Texas regulators review an Entergy power plant slated to open in 2026 that will run on natural gas and hydrogen. (Orange Leader)
• A retired general and environmentalist in Louisiana calls on state and federal officials to place a moratorium on gas export terminal permitting. (KPLC)
SOLAR:
• After approving two large solar farms in recent weeks, a Virginia county places a moratorium on new solar projects until 2024 or until its planning commission recommends zoning ordinance changes. (Mecklenburg Sun)
• A rural electric co-op challenges Kentucky regulators’ finding that it improperly restricted net-metering for customers with solar systems. (Messenger-Inquirer)
• A South Korean energy and petrochemical firm eyes Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina for a new production base to make photovoltaic solar cells. (Maeil Business News Korea)
WIND: The state of Texas and its residents express concern about birds and jobs in comments on a federally proposed offshore wind zone, while a similar zone in Louisiana has prompted little response. (NOLA.com)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Tennessee city approves a Tesla charging station and multiple ports, with hopes that more will follow. (Tennessean)
COAL ASH: Environmental groups sue the U.S. EPA to close a loophole in its coal ash rules that allowed utilities such as one in Florida to dump toxic ash into a city landfill. (Energy News Network, WMFE)
COAL: Six of the top 10 carbon-emitting power plants in the U.S. are located in the Southeast, with four in Texas. (E&E News)
CLIMATE: Louisiana residents move into 12 homes in the first federally funded resettlement site for those affected by climate change, with 37 houses eventually planned for residents of an island that was struck by Hurricane Isaac in 2012. (NOLA.com)
BIOMASS: North Carolina organizers and environmentalists respond to a manufacturer’s application for an air permit to expand a wood pellet manufacturing facility. (Chowan Herald)
POLITICS:
• Sen. Joe Manchin’s biggest donor — a Houston pipeline company that also employs his son-in-law — says carbon capture incentives that the West Virginia senator negotiated into the Inflation Reduction Act could be a “game changer” for its business. (The Lever)
• A North Carolina Congress member whose district includes part of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s planned route insists she has no obligation to vote for permit streamlining legislation that was part of a deal to ensure U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s support of climate legislation. (Winston-Salem Journal)
UTILITIES: Texas residents complaining of high power bills find hidden costs when they ask to test the accuracy of newly installed smart meters. (KWTX)
COMMENTARY:
• Virginia’s participation in a regional carbon market has been a game-changer for weatherizing low-income homes, but that progress is being threatened by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to withdraw the state from the initiative, writes an energy efficiency advocate. (Virginia Mercury)
• A curious editor investigates and finds Virginia now has more acres in solar energy production than in tobacco — and soon that will be true in the state’s tobacco-producing region as well. (Cardinal News)
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