GRID: A bipartisan group of Texas state lawmakers, including all members of its business and commerce committee, call for the state grid regulator to halt its redesign of the state’s electricity market, throwing the already-fraught process into “even deeper disarray.” (Dallas Morning News)
ALSO: At least 45,000 North Carolinians lose power after two electrical substations were damaged by gunfire in what police are investigating as a criminal act. (News & Observer)
OIL & GAS:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority recommends replacing an aging coal-fired power plant with natural gas, spurning calls to instead shift to solar and battery power. (Associated Press)
• The lack of contractors willing to plug abandoned oil and gas wells in Kentucky is increasing the cost of doing so, according to a state official. (Kentucky Lantern)
• A new study finds 2010’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill dramatically affected survival rates of mahi mahi, an important fish in the Gulf of Mexico. (WUSF)
STORAGE: Construction is moving forward on Ford and SK On’s joint $5.8 billion pair of battery factories in Kentucky. (Lexington Herald Leader)
EMISSIONS: Walmart joins environmental and clean energy advocates in criticizing Duke Energy’s plan to cut carbon emissions in North Carolina as insufficient. (Winston-Salem Journal)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A new study finds Louisiana has just 8.3 electric vehicle chargers per 100,000 residents, the lowest in the U.S. (Greater Baton Rouge Business Report)
• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper touts the state’s progress toward electrifying fleets of zero-emission vans, buses and trucks at an EV conference. (CleanTechnica)
WIND: Fishing, marine habitat and shipping lanes may shrink the size of two designated wind energy areas off North Carolina’s coast by the time they’re finalized next year. (Coastal Review)
PIPELINES:
• Democratic U.S. House leadership may resurrect U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill to streamline energy permitting and force completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, but its path to passage remains unclear. (Washington Post)
• A Republican U.S. senator files legislation to accelerate completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline while a coalition of environmental and advocacy groups call for more public comment before federal agencies issue a draft report on the project. (WDBJ)
COAL ASH: Environmental advocates challenge Georgia Power’s plan to leave coal ash in contact with groundwater at four state power plants, especially since the U.S. EPA denied an Ohio power plant’s plan to do the same. (Capitol Beat News Service)
POLITICS:
• For the first time in more than a century, oil and gas powerhouse Louisiana will not have a Congress member on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. (NOLA.com)
• Last week’s death of a Virginia U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin could spur the passage of environmental justice legislation he long championed in the U.S. House, although it’s unlikely to get through the Senate. (E&E News)
COMMENTARY:
• Two Republican Virginia lawmakers criticize a law passed by Democratic majorities to transition the state entirely to renewables by 2050 as short-sighted and expensive. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Kentucky lawmakers still refuse to take climate change seriously despite recent extreme weather events that claimed lives and destroyed property, writes a longtime journalist. (Kentucky Lantern)
• The prospect of building a small nuclear reactor in Appalachian Virginia scrambles traditional partisan coalitions, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)
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