PIPELINES: As federal regulators approve permits to restart construction on the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline, the fate of its Southgate extension into North Carolina remains in question after it’s twice been rejected by state regulators. (Roanoke Times, Energy News Network)

COAL ASH:
• The U.S. EPA hears from Black communities in Alabama and Tennessee, the widow of a cleanup worker at the Kingston coal ash spill, and others who provide feedback to its proposal to subject hundreds more coal ash dumps to rules passed in 2015. (Energy News Network)
• A sinkhole has been releasing coal ash into a North Carolina waterway for three years as Duke Energy and a property owner argue over who’s responsible for repairs. (NC Newsline)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp assails President Biden’s electric vehicle policies while speaking at the factory of an EV supplier that received $100 million from the federal infrastructure bill. (Associated Press)
• Federal funding will pay to convert facilities in the Washington, D.C., and Hampton Roads metro areas of Virginia to accommodate electric buses. (Culpeper Star-Exponent)

STORAGE: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm hails the new Southeast “battery belt” emerging from the $1.2 trillion in clean energy and infrastructure spending measures passed during President Biden’s term. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

GRID:
• Wind and solar are providing roughly a third of Texas state grid’s power this week, helping prop it up through a heat wave. (KENS, NPR)
• Residents of Puerto Rico advocate for building more solar-and-battery-powered microgrids as the U.S. moves to rebuild the island’s power grid. (Here & Now/WBUR)

OIL & GAS:
• A company that wants to build an $11 billion liquified natural gas export terminal appears to have ghost-written letters of support to federal regulators on behalf of nearly two dozen elected public officials. (DeSmog Blog)
• Texas lawmakers meet with oil and gas industry leaders to discuss legislative changes to the state energy market and incentives for construction of natural gas-fired power plants. (Fort Worth Report)

REGULATION: Environmental groups say Virginia regulators are over-relying on “compliance agreements” with mining companies that violate pollution rules instead of fining them outright. (Virginia Mercury)

UTILITIES:
• An investigation into allegations an official at Alabama Power paid a private investigator to spy on the Southern Co.’s chief executive still remains inconclusive nearly a year later. (Wall Street Journal, subscription; AL.com)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs legislation to start the process of moving authority over Gainesville’s municipal utility from the city to a board that he appoints. (Gainesville Sun)
• A failed real estate deal ended up financially benefiting South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility. (Post and Courier, subscription)
• Four Florida utilities begin active trading in a new Southeast energy market. (news release)

CLIMATE: A study finds parts of Texas and the central U.S. could become an “extreme heat belt,” reaching temperatures up to 125 degrees in the next 30 years. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

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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.