OVERSIGHT: Louisiana Democrats criticize the state party for taking more than $90,000 from utilities, alleging the party used the funds to meddle in two regulatory board races and implicitly back a fossil fuel-supporting incumbent who ultimately lost. (DeSmog Blog)
ALSO:
• Bipartisan Virginia lawmakers introduce legislation to expand the role of a commission that analyzes the state’s regulation of Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power. (Virginia Mercury)
• Florida lawmakers consider giving state regulators more oversight of municipal utilities. (WFOR)
• A former strategy officer at North Carolina’s environmental agency becomes a climate change policy adviser for the governor’s office. (Coastal Review)
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STORAGE: A lithium-ion battery maker announces it will open a laboratory in eastern Tennessee to research an additive that reduces fires and explosions. (Knoxville News Sentinel, WVLT)
SOLAR:
• A Virginia county board considers a proposal to place solar panels on a landfill to power a sewage pump station. (WRIC)
• A rural Tennessee resident brags on her solar system, but many others in the Tennessee Valley have been relatively slow to adopt solar power. (WLNS)
EFFICIENCY: Clean energy advocates work to inform North Carolina residents of how to take advantage of federal tax credits and rebates for home weatherization and energy-efficient appliances. (Winston-Salem Journal)
OIL & GAS:
• A company builds a 190 MW natural gas peaker plant in Texas. (Daily Trib)
• A 2019 natural gas explosion that killed a woman in Kentucky is among the incidents prompting calls for federal regulators to change a formula setting a blast radius around facilities. (E&E News)
PIPELINES: Environmental groups ask an appeals court to reject a Virginia board’s approval of a key water permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Bloomberg Law)
BIOGAS: Virginia regulators approve a gas utility’s plan to convert gas from a sewage treatment plant into renewable natural gas. (Roanoke Times)
COAL: Workers at a West Virginia coal-fired plant slated to close in May tell state regulators they want a utility to buy it and keep it open. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
GRID:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority announces $28 million in transmission upgrades in North Carolina and Tennessee. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority seeks public comment on an Alabama project to build a connection from a transmission line to an electric cooperative’s substation. (Sand Mountain Reporter)
POLITICS:
• The Arkansas Republican who now chairs the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee expresses support for carbon removal but also wants to accelerate permitting for fossil fuel-intensive projects. (Inside Climate News)
• Democratic Virginia lawmakers kill a Republican bill to withdraw the state from a regional carbon market. (Virginia Mercury)
TRANSITION: The new head of a Virginia commission to distribute funds in areas historically reliant on tobacco says he wants to attract nuclear, biomass and hydrogen projects. (Cardinal News)
COMMENTARY:
• A columnist calls out Republican Texas lawmakers for “wallowing in climate denial” as they file bills attacking wind and solar projects, many of which ultimately would cost ratepayers. (Houston Chronicle)
• A Georgia mayor hails the long-delayed expansion of nuclear Plant Vogtle for growing carbon-free energy as the region shifts from coal. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
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