RECYCLING: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive action calling for more recycling and composting also rolls back his Democratic predecessor’s initiative to eliminate single-use plastics. (Energy News Network)

EMISSIONS:
• An underground gas storage facility in Mississippi releases half a ton of methane every hour — more than any other gas storage facility in the country. (Inside Climate News/Mississippi Today)
• Three Georgia power plants land on a list of the 100 dirtiest power plants in the U.S. for greenhouse gas emissions. (Capitol Beat News Service)
• A North Carolina lawmaker files a resolution against a proposed federal rule requiring farmers to disclose their carbon emissions. (Richmond Observer)

SOLAR:
• A Virginia county board rejects a proposed 20 MW solar farm. (Smithfield Times)
• Representatives of American Electric Power, FirstEnergy and Toyota brief West Virginia lawmakers on the potential for solar energy facilities to attract economic development. (State Journal)
• A Florida Republican incorporates support for net-metering rules and solar rebates into his political platform. (Florida Politics)
• LEGO announces plans for a $1 billion Virginia factory to be powered by a solar park. (EcoWatch)
• A power company breaks ground on a 200 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)
• Georgia’s attorney general investigates a rooftop solar company after homeowners complain they were deceived. (WAGA)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Volvo plans to begin U.S. production before the end of the decade on large, self-charging electric transport trucks that emit only water vapor. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• Oklahoma’s transportation department seeks public input on its plan to place electric chargers around the state. (Journal Record)

WIND: A proposed extension of an Oklahoma city’s tax district could save an energy company $14 million in taxes for storage of its wind turbine parts. (Enid News & Eagle)

OIL & GAS:
• Houston’s long relationship with oil and gas is benefitting the city as rapidly rising energy prices help the region regain jobs lost in the pandemic faster than expected. (Houston Chronicle)
• The owners of a West Virginia-based natural gas company consider selling it for more than $5 billion. (Reuters)
• The U.S. EPA denies Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s request to temporarily waive reformulated gas requirements as part of an effort to lower gasoline prices. (WFPL)

STORAGE:
• Construction workers celebrate the completion of the steel structure that will become a battery factory in Tennessee. (Williamson Source)
• NextEra’s recently announced decarbonization strategy will add more than 50 GW of storage to Florida Power & Light’s territory. (PV Tech)

EFFICIENCY: A Texas city council approves a five-year extension of its municipal utility’s energy efficiency program. (San Antonio Report)

GRID:
• Entergy cancels plans for maintenance outages in New Orleans because of extreme heat. (WVUE)
• The Texas grid and the Tennessee Valley Authority see record-breaking power demand. (KVUE, Knoxville Daily Sun)
• Memphis, Tennessee’s municipal power utility partners with a construction and engineering firm to strengthen the grid’s reliability. (Utility Dive)

TRANSITION: A federal work group to revitalize coal and power plant communities reports that a fifth of the 25 national regions most affected by coal-related declines are located in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

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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.