TRANSITION: The Tennessee Valley Authority announces plans to replace a Tennessee coal-fired power plant with a 1,500 MW gas plant plus 3-4 MW of solar and 100 MW of battery storage, after briefly considering but dismissing far more solar and battery power at the site. (WPLN, Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Kentucky’s largest utility tests a new state law adding barriers to retiring coal plants by applying to shutter units at three coal-fired power plants. (Kentucky Lantern)
• West Virginia’s political leaders fight proposed U.S. EPA rules to reduce power plant emissions in a state where coal still generates 91% of electricity, even with 10 GW of solar, storage and wind projects waiting in the wings. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)

CLEAN ENERGY:
• Texas lawmakers consider legislation to boost fossil fuels and throttle renewable energy despite booming wind and solar growth. (NPR)
• Several Texas solar developers say they’ll consider shifting their operations elsewhere if state lawmakers pass legislation enforcing new permitting restrictions and fines on solar and wind projects. (PV Magazine)
• A new report finds wind and solar energy have saved Texans as much as $200 on their power bills over the last five years, and have reduced wholesale electricity prices by more than $30 billion overall since 2010. (Houston Chronicle)
• A South Carolina energy authority is eligible for $1 million in funding after joining a National Science Foundation-sponsored program to develop clean energy in the Carolinas. (Columbia Business Report)

GRID: A new study finds power plant outages tend to cluster in Appalachia and the South, while counties in Arkansas and Louisiana face greater potential health consequences because of factors such as poverty and overcrowded housing. (Washington Post)

HYDROPOWER: A Cherokee tribe’s efforts to remove a western North Carolina dam expose the deteriorating condition of dams across the U.S. that are being tested by intense and frequent rainfall and flooding. (Inside Climate News)

STORAGE: An energy company announces it will build two 100 MW battery storage facilities in Texas. (Renewables Now)

NUCLEAR: Dominion Energy considers modular nuclear reactors in southwestern Virginia as part of its plan to deploy 33,000 MW of new power generation in the next 25 years. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

COAL: International doctors collaborate to share information and improve diagnoses and care for Appalachian coal miners with black lung disease. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)

BIOFUELS:
• A Florida gas company completes construction of a renewable gas facility that will use manure from a dairy company. (Florida Politics)
• A North Carolina county board votes to extend a moratorium on biomass facilities for an additional year as it studies changes to its land use ordinance. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

CLIMATE: Federal officials open a business recovery center in Florida to help small business owners apply for loans to help pay for repairs and economic losses from April flooding. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

COMMENTARY:
• The geological formation that supercharged Arkansas’ oil industry is now making the state a destination for lithium companies, writes an editorial board. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Fiscal responsibility and non-governmental initiatives such as natural infrastructure can better protect Florida from extreme storms and rising seas than regulation and government spending, writes a fellow at a conservative think tank. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

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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.