SOLAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority board approves a pilot project to build a 100 MW solar farm on a Kentucky coal ash landfill, with plans to develop 1,000 MW more solar power using similar projects. (Tennessean)

ALSO: Georgia regulators discuss whether Georgia Power should expand its popular rooftop solar program as it seeks a 12% rate hike. (Georgia Recorder)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Experts say a Texas man’s fight against two plants that will pipe in fracked gas from West Texas’ Permian Basin shows how state law discourages citizens from combating the state’s ever-expanding fossil fuel industry. (Floodlight/Texas Tribune)

GRID:
• Tropical Storm Nicole makes landfall in Florida, killing at least two people and knocking out power to more than 330,000 homes before moving into Georgia and the rest of the Southeast. (CNN, WFOR, Associated Press)
• Texas regulators propose requiring power providers to buy “performance credits” from generators to ensure electricity is available when demand is high, but an expert says it’s still unclear how this framework will function during extreme weather. (Texas Tribune)
• Hundreds of utility workers deploy across Florida and the Southeast to respond to outages caused by Tropical Storm Nicole. (WCJB)
• Dominion Energy cancels planned transmission lines to an Amazon data center in Virginia and proposes building a substation instead. (Prince William Times)

UTILITIES:
• Texas regulators have approved $6.3 billion to bail out electricity and gas providers after the 2021 winter storm, with state ratepayers stuck repaying them for the next 30 years. (Dallas Morning News)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority touts a big year for cutting debt, providing pandemic relief and attracting new investment but will still charge customers about 10% more for heat this winter due to natural gas and coal price jumps. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issues an executive order outlining ways for automakers, fleet owners and state agencies to grow the market for electric vehicles. (Daily Tar Heel)
• Many Virginians using common access parking, renting in apartment complexes, or living under strict homeowner’s associations still have trouble accessing EV chargers. (Fairfax County Times)
• Louisiana officials explain how they intend to spend $74 million over five years building electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (WGMB)

EMISSIONS: The U.S. EPA awards Virginia’s Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe $449,988 to build and operate an air quality monitoring station. (Virginia Mercury)

COAL:
• Some of the West Virginia legislature’s most outspoken advocates for coal miner protections and aid for transitioning communities lost in Tuesday’s elections as Republicans’ supermajority swelled to 88%. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority implodes three cooling towers at a shuttered Kentucky coal plant. (WATE)

POLLUTION: A Virginia company that services water treatment equipment blames a customer for “forever chemicals” that leaked into a city’s drinking water supply. (Roanoke Times)

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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.