SOLAR: Virginia community solar advocates eye breakthroughs in Maryland and District of Columbia programs as they prepare to make a push for shared solar in next year’s state legislative session. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• Three Virginia electric cooperatives ask state regulators to make their community solar programs permanent after running three years of pilot programs. (Virginia Mercury)
• Oklahoma lawmakers approve a three-piece, $218.6 million incentive package to attract what’s believed to be an Enel solar panel factory. (Tulsa World)

CARBON CAPTURE:
• The political fight over building a carbon capture project at Louisiana’s Lake Maurepas exemplifies the rush to access government funding even while the technology’s safety and viability remain uncertain. (Politico)
• Louisiana lawmakers torpedo measures to block state permitting and place a 10-year moratorium on carbon capture projects on the lake after the petrochemical industry warns doing so would risk “billions” in investment. (The Advocate)

PIPELINES: The U.S. Forest Service approves a permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross 3.5 miles of federal land in Virginia, but the long-delayed project must still obtain other approvals before construction can resume. (Roanoke Times)

WIND: Florida’s Republican congressional delegation requests a federal study on the effects of wind turbines in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean as part of an effort to block state offshore wind development. (Tampa Bay Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric vehicle maker Canoo projects it will build 20,000 cars by the end of the year despite a $90.7 million loss in the first quarter of 2023. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A company that makes synthetic graphite anode for electric vehicle batteries announces an $800 million factory in Georgia. (WAGA)
• Toyota ramps up hiring and erects a water tower at the North Carolina site where it’s building a $3.8 billion electric-vehicle battery plant. (Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News & Record)

BIOMASS: A Georgia regulator who successfully pushed to allow state biomass plants to burn scrap tires now says he wants to roll back the decision. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

NUCLEAR:
• North Carolina lawmakers consider a bill to redefine “renewable energy” as “clean energy” under state law, allowing nuclear power to be considered along with wind, solar and hydroelectric power. (Wilmington StarNews)
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is scheduled to make a nuclear power announcement this morning at the University of Tennessee. (WATE)

GRID: With two weeks left in the legislative session, Texas lawmakers still haven’t resolved disagreement over how to stabilize the state power grid. (Texas Tribune)

OIL & GAS:
• Environmental groups slag the Tennessee Valley Authority’s decision to build a natural gas-fired power plant to replace a Tennessee coal plant scheduled for retirement. (Tennessee Lookout)
• Oil and gas production in the Permian Basin is projected to rise to a record high in June, lifting U.S. oil output from the seven biggest shale basins to the highest on record. (Reuters)

COMMENTARY: An editorial board endorses U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform proposal as a way to push oil and gas projects through a “labyrinth of rules and reviews.” (NOLA.com)

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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.