UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority issues a request for proposals to generate 5,000 MW of carbon-free power using nuclear, wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and battery energy storage systems as it prepares to close a massive coal-fired power plant. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, Associated Press)

ALSO:
• More than two-dozen Kentuckians tell state regulators during a public hearing that Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities should do more to address climate change in its long-ranging planning. (WFPL)
• Entergy officials tell the New Orleans city council its skyrocketing power bills are due to natural gas price spikes and hot summer temperatures. (WWNO)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Walmart orders 4,500 electric vans from electric vehicle maker Canoo to use for online order deliveries. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Kentucky utility officials say they have plenty of capacity to handle electric vehicle chargers without threatening the power grid. (Louisville Courier Journal)
• An Oklahoma company claims it’s found enough lithium in a southern Arkansas underground brine formation to produce batteries for 50 million electric cars. (Arkansas Business, subscription)

SOLAR: Record-breaking solar energy production has propped up the Texas power grid as it endures extreme heat and soaring demand. (Texas Monthly)

PIPELINES:
• Environmentalists fight a company’s plans to build a 37-mile pipeline from Texas to an offshore port in Louisiana. (The Record)
• About 60 Texas residents secure a legal firm to fight a company that wants their land for a planned pipeline. (KXAN)

OIL & GAS:
• A fire and subsequent closure of a Texas natural gas export facility continues to affect fuel prices — this time contributing to a domestic price drop because its closure has left more gas in the U.S. (Reuters)
• Florida’s capital city avoided more than $53 million in natural gas costs because it locked in historically low rates in 2018 through long-term contracts. (Tallahassee Democrat)
• The Colonial Pipeline estimates a July 4 leak spilled 24,822 gallons of gasoline in Tennessee. (WBIR)

GRID: Texas saw record-breaking power demand Monday, but the state’s grid manager anticipates no more calls for conservation this week. (KHOU)

OVERSIGHT: Renewable energy advocates press for representation on a new West Virginia task force that aims to get coal-fired power plants running at higher capacity levels. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)

COAL: Virginia will accelerate reclamation of coal sites damaged before 1977 as it receives federal infrastructure funding. (WVTF)

CLIMATE: Heat and growing drought conditions press Arkansas farmers who grow water-heavy crops such as rice and soybeans. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY: The six largest U.S. banks have invested $44 billion into liquified natural gas companies in the last 6 years, bolstering fossil fuels and contributing to a growing number of climate-driven natural disasters on the U.S. Gulf Coast, write two climate activists. (Louisiana Illuminator)

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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.