GRID: A Texas regulator calls for building more natural gas-fired power plants and batteries to shore up reliability, noting that the state’s power grid will have to rely more than ever on wind and solar this summer. (Texas Tribune, KVUE)

ALSO: Despite the efforts of its elected officials, Texas has become a leader in the clean energy transition and will add more solar and wind capacity in 2023 than all other states combined. (Reuters)

SOLAR:
• Duke Energy begins operation of two 75 MW solar farms in Florida just weeks after completing two other solar projects. (Solar Power World)
• A Texas community considers incorporating into a city to block future solar farms. (KLTV)
• A solar company returns to a Virginia county commission with a new plan that uses less farmland after its previous proposal was rejected. (WTVR)
• A Kentucky county commission denies a rezoning for a proposed solar farm after an official says the site is no longer part of an industrial corridor. (News-Enterprise)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:  Virginia lawmakers and residents fret over cost and other obstacles that could delay the state from meeting a mandate that 35% of all new cars and trucks sold with a 2026 model year must be electric. (Virginian-Pilot)

HYDROGEN: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a memorandum of understanding with a South Korean company to build a hydrogen plant in the state, with plans to break ground next month. (Spectrum News)

OIL & GAS:
• Louisiana residents and environmental groups push back against a planned liquified natural gas plant that’s touted as the largest and most expensive in the U.S. (WDSU)
• A Texas gas company reports it will temporarily stop drilling in the Haynesville shale region because natural gas prices have dropped. (S&P Global)
• Eight Congress members tour an oil and gas production platform off the U.S. Gulf Coast. (WVUE)

CLIMATE:
• Research finds land in Virginia’s coastal Hampton Roads area is sinking at about twice the rate that waters are rising, complicating the challenge of dealing with climate change. (WHRO)
• Researchers find rainfall-induced flooding not captured by federal flood studies accounted for a quarter of the flooding they observed in a coastal North Carolina town. (Coastal Review)

COAL: An abandoned coal refuse pile is on fire in Virginia just a month after officials extinguished it last time. (WRIC)

UTILITIES: A steady stream of experts and Georgia residents argue state regulators should not let Georgia Power recover 100% of higher fuel costs over the last couple of years. (Capitol Beat News Service)

POLITICS: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for re-election, brags the state is receiving a lot of attention from Asian and European renewable energy companies who want to build manufacturing plants. (Reuters)

COMMENTARY:
• Power grids across the U.S. that have been tested by extreme weather and soaring demand should build more solar and battery storage capacity, write two solar advocates. (Energy News Network)
• The president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce warns Louisiana against deregulating its energy market. (Real Clear Energy)
• The head of a conservative group calls for Texas to become a leader in carbon capture technology to preserve its oil and gas industry while lowering emissions. (Beaumont Enterprise)

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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.