OIL & GAS: An investigation of Texas’ efforts to ensure natural gas plants were winterized after failures in 2021 nearly caused the state grid to collapse reveals that regulators cited only 222 of more than 7,000 facilities, and nearly all were written up only for paperwork violations. (E&E News)

ALSO:
• Abandoned oil and gas wells in Texas are spewing toxic waste, creating problematic sinkholes and complicating the fight against climate change. (Houston Chronicle)
• A company that planned to build a liquified natural gas plant near a historically Black community in the Florida Panhandle using a legal loophole to limit federal oversight announces it will “no longer pursue” the controversial project. (Inside Climate News, Gulf County Star)
• A liquefied natural gas bunker barge completes its first refueling of a ship at a Florida port. (Space Coast Daily)
• A newly proposed federal rule would increase royalty rates for oil and gas companies to drill on public land, while also tightening rules for cleaning up old and abandoned wells. (Associated Press, E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: One of the world’s largest automotive suppliers announces it will build two factories at Ford’s electric vehicle manufacturing megasite in Tennessee. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

TRANSITION:
• All six major electric utilities in Kentucky plan to develop solar, wind and battery storage, but at a slower pace than in many other states as they continue to rely on natural gas and coal. (Louisville Public Media)
• North Carolina solar generation eclipsed coal-fired power in the first three months of 2023, marking the third time that’s happened in the last three years. (WFAE)
• A West Virginia technology foundation announces a partnership with a Microsoft program to build tech-based economic development to replace the fading coal industry, although its lack of trained talent and large metro areas are still challenges. (Times West Virginian)

COAL ASH: As the Tennessee Valley Authority moves to transition to natural gas and renewables, the question of how to dispose of toxic coal ash looms. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

COAL: Democratic U.S. senators in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania reintroduce legislation to make it easier for families of coal miners who died from black lung to claim federal benefits. (Cardinal News)

CLIMATE:
• Nashville, Tennessee, frequently adjusts its zoning code, but residents complain city officials still don’t do enough to plan for flooding and other problems made worse by climate change. (WPLN)
• A new study finds central Tennessee’s probability for “100-year” storms is four times higher than federal projections. (WPLN)

STORAGE: A Florida children’s medical facility temporarily shuts down after 30 lithium-ion batteries in the MRI room swelled and released toxic compounds, leading to an evacuation  of the building. (WFLA) 

FINANCE: Oklahoma cities and counties run into confusion around a new state law forbidding the state from doing business with banks and firms considered “hostile” to oil and gas development. (Oklahoma Watch)

RENEWABLE GAS: West Virginia regulators hold a public hearing on an air quality permit for a proposed waste-to-gas facility that would make renewable natural gas from medical waste. (WV Metro News)

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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.