CARBON: A Virginia business coalition rapidly moves toward a goal of cutting carbon pollution by 45% by 2025 through energy audits and a family-owned fossil fuel distributor’s embrace of solar power. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: A news investigation identifies planned oil and gas projects in the Permian Basin and on the Gulf Coast as leading clusters of “carbon bombs” that threaten to shatter global climate goals. (Guardian)

COAL ASH:
• A court denies federal immunity for a Tennessee Valley Authority contractor accused in the mass poisoning of workers by radioactive coal ash waste, moving sickened workers one step closer to seeking damages. (Tennessee Lookout, WATE)
• A South Carolina county reaches a settlement with a company building a landfill that prohibits the use of a hazardous waste liner and accompanying storage of coal ash. (Greenville News)

SOLAR: Appalachian Power says the federal probe of Chinese solar products may delay construction of a 50 MW solar facility in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Electric vehicle maker Canoo may delay production at its Arkansas and Oklahoma assembly plants due to global chip shortage and higher material costs. (Reuters)
• Nissan considers adding a new electric vehicle factory or expanding one of its plants in Mississippi or Tennessee. (WKRN)
• A North Carolina manufacturer of electric and traditional school buses adds a second shift as it ramps up production. (Winston-Salem Journal)

WIND: Duke Energy’s path to develop offshore wind remains hazy despite winning a federal lease auction because state lawmakers have not codified the governor’s wind power goals into law. (S&P Global)

FINANCE: Laws in West Virginia and other states to prohibit doing business with firms that restrict fossil fuel investments encounter complications in their real-world application. (New York Magazine)

COAL: Coal employment remains steady in Northern Appalachia, but grew nearly 14% in central Appalachia from the lows of 2020 amid high demand for steel-making coal. (S&P Global)

TRANSITION: Virginia receives $2 million from the EPA to clean up contaminated brownfield sites in four cities and towns. (Virginia Mercury)

CLIMATE: Texas is seeing higher temperatures, more powerful hurricanes, rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. (Texas Tribune)

GRID:
• Analysts warn the Texas electricity grid has made improvements but still faces an elevated risk of energy emergencies this summer. (KXAS)
• XCel Energy favorably compares the preparedness of its Texas and New Mexico system to meet summer power demand against the Texas state power grid’s recent falter. (Amarillo Globe-News)

UTILITIES: The mayor of an Alabama city calls for it to sell its gas utility because inflation, supply chain issues and new rules will likely make it less profitable. (Tallassee Tribune) 

POLITICS: U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia calls on the Biden administration to cut regulations to spur domestic energy production. (Beckley Register-Herald)

COMMENTARY: The oil industry could assist in the clean energy transition by repurposing infrastructure to deliver a mix of oil, gas and hydrogen, write a professor and the head of an analytics firm. (Dallas Morning News)

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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.