SOLAR: Dozens of North Carolina churches and faith communities have gone solar since 2017 by taking advantage of a Duke Energy nonprofit rebate program that’s set to expire this year. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• San Antonio, Texas, ranks as the fifth largest producer of solar energy among U.S. cities, but advocates worry growth will slow if the municipal utility ends a net-metering credit. (San Antonio Express-News)
• A South Carolina county board approves a 55 MW solar farm after years of denying other solar projects due to environmental concerns. (Post and Courier)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The CEO of electric vehicle maker Rivian warns of challenges in sourcing EV battery components as the company prepares to build a factory in Georgia. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Oklahoma lawmakers advance an incentives package to lure an unnamed manufacturing facility widely thought to be a Panasonic battery manufacturing plant. (KFOR, Journal Record)
• Volkswagen prepares to begin operation of a new battery engineering lab in eastern Tennessee as it seeks to overtake Tesla as the largest electric vehicle maker. (CNN Business)

NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority partners with a Canadian utility to develop small modular nuclear reactors to replace coal- and natural gas-fired power generators. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

OIL & GAS: A liquified natural gas company presses for a break on federal emissions regulations from its LNG export terminals in Louisiana and Texas as it ramps up exports to Europe. (Inside Climate News) 

EMISSIONS:
• Louisiana is the first Deep South state with a plan to cut its carbon footprint, but already-approved future industrial projects are still set to release major emissions. (WWNO)
• Virginia regulators will begin a three-year study of air quality around coal terminals near a low-income, largely Black neighborhood where residents have long complained of heavy air pollution. (Virginia Mercury)

GRID: Investigators believe downed power lines ignited wildfires that burned thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes in eastern Tennessee. (WBIR)

UTILITIES: Two former executives of a Florida municipal utility charged with federal conspiracy and wire fraud related to their attempt to sell the utility may not go to trial until 2023. (Jacksonville Daily Record)

CARBON CAPTURE: A Tennessee startup that developed a manufacturing technique to capture and convert carbon into useful materials is named a finalist in Elon Musk’s XPRIZE carbon removal competition. (Knoxville News-Sentinel)

CLIMATE:
• North Carolina-based clothing company HanesBrands reports ​​it’s a quarter of the way toward its 2030 goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• The mayor of a Virginia city introduces a climate equity plan that lays out 49 strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and have net-zero emissions by 2050. (WRIC)

COMMENTARY:
• Louisiana’s clean energy transition depends on offshore oil and gas service companies producing relatively low-carbon fossil fuels, expanding into renewables, and funding coastal restoration, writes the president of an oilfield service provider. (The Advocate)
• A South Carolina lawmaker touts legislation that would let the state use securitization to reduce ratepayer costs for the retirement of coal-fired power plants. (Post and Courier)

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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.