TRANSITION: A California company restarts a West Virginia coal-fired power plant that had been scheduled for deactivation, with plans to invest $800 million to retrofit the facility to use hydrogen. (Associated Press)

CLIMATE:
• Former Hurricane Idalia weakens to a tropical storm and leaves a swath of devastation across Florida and the Southeast as it enters the Carolinas. (Associated Press)
• Roughly 300,000 households in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are still without power after Hurricane Idalia passes through, forcing some residents who stayed behind to “swim out of their windows.” (NBC News)

SOLAR:
• Virginia regulators rule Dominion Energy must suspend costly requirements for hookups of solar systems between 250 kW and 1,000 kW until state officials weigh in on the proposal. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Oklahoma solar advocates tout an initiative to make solar energy and battery storage more affordable and accessible for residents in an eight-county region. (Tulsa People)

STORAGE:
• An Arkansas firm backed by Koch Industries races dozens of other companies to commercialize technology to extract lithium from wastewater brine. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Texas begins a “virtual power plant” program with clusters of Tesla Powerwall customers in Houston and Dallas. (Canary Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Duke Energy partners with Ford, General Motors and BMW to roll out a flat fee residential charging subscription pilot program in North Carolina beginning in November. (Utility Dive)

NUCLEAR:
• Georgia Power announces a deal that still needs approval by state regulators to charge residential customers $7.56 billion more to pay for construction costs of the over-budget nuclear Plant Vogtle expansion. (Associated Press)
• A Virginia business announces it’s secured a federal government contract for uranium processing. (Cardinal News)

CLEAN ENERGY:
• Virginia sees the emergence of several energy industry startups capitalizing on the state’s mandate to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and the Biden administration’s push for renewables. (Virginia Business)
• Several companies launch energy-related projects in West Virginia, ranging from an iron-air battery factory to a firm that uses coal as carbon ore for a multitude of products. (WV Metro News)

GRID:  Virginia officials embark on an ambitious, multi-billion-dollar plan to build out grid infrastructure in areas near planned data centers, in some cases rekindling previous political battles over transmission lines. (Piedmont Journalism Foundation)

POLITICS:
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used a line-item veto to reject a federal grant to set up a rebate program for energy-efficient appliances, effectively turning down $350 million in federal funding to reduce climate change months before Hurricane Idalia arrived. (New Republic)
• Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia remains a crucial swing vote for the Biden administration’s energy agenda, even as he faces a difficult reelection fight in 2024. (Newsweek)

COMMENTARY:
• The emergence of long-duration storage systems will fill in recurring gaps in wind and solar power generation and transform power production in places like Texas, writes an energy columnist. (Triple Pundit)
• A Montana court ruling in favor of climate change activists likely won’t translate to the state constitution and past court rulings in Virginia, so environmentalists should focus on state laws and constitutional amendments instead, writes a law professor. (Roanoke Times)

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.