ALSO: 

• A judge rejects a federal agency’s recommendations for protecting whales and other threatened marine species because they don’t account for the possibility of catastrophic oil spills as a possible effect of awarding new offshore drilling leases. (NOLA.com)
• A study links fracking activity to pre-2017 earthquakes in parts of the Permian Basin by showing they didn’t originate as deep as originally thought, but instead occurred in shallow areas that correspond to fracking wastewater disposal. (Dallas Morning News)
• A lawyer enters into a contract with a West Virginia county commission to hold companies accountable for cleanup of abandoned natural gas wells. (Beckley Register-Herald)

SOLAR: Louisiana lawmakers ask a parish board to pause consideration of new solar projects — including a proposed 375 MW facility — until state regulators implement new rules requiring such projects to go through a state permitting process and provide a decommissioning plan. (KPLC)

CARBON CAPTURE: A company drops its plan to build a carbon capture facility alongside its $18.4 billion Texas liquified natural gas facility that’s already under construction, but which recently hit a legal snag. (DeSmog)

WIND: Virginia residents complain of noise and disruption from construction of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm. (WTKR)

EMISSIONS: A Louisiana activist fights a fuel company’s plans to build a blue ammonia plant to generate hydrogen and feedstock for the fertilizer industry that residents fear will only intensify pollution in an already burdened community. (Floodlight)

GRID: 

• Texas’ grid regulator credits new battery, solar wind power for boosting the state grid and preventing conservation alerts so far this summer. (KVUE, KDFW)
• A heat wave setting new record high temperatures in parts of Texas is set to test the state grid’s reliability. (San Angelo Live, CBS News)
• A Florida homeowner says she’s lost money over ruined appliances and worries about safety after a series of power surges she says began when Duke Energy started a project to underground power lines. (WFTS)
• Thousands of Florida residents lose power during sporadic outages that Florida Power & Light blames on a failed main feeder and says is unrelated to its ongoing project burying power lines. (Observer)

UTILITIES: 

• The Georgia Supreme Court hears arguments in a case about retail competition between power providers Walton Electric Membership Corp. and Georgia Power. (Georgia Recorder)
• A South Carolina legislative panel signs off on the state-owned utility’s plan to purchase more than 150 acres to build a power plant if it’s unable to partner with Dominion Energy on a proposed natural gas-fired plant elsewhere. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

FINANCING: A Florida county board considers reinstituting a program to fund clean energy improvements that it banned in 2020 after homeowners complained the cost was attached to their property tax bills. (WFLA)

CLIMATE: A coalition of prisoner’s rights groups seek to persuade a federal judge to issue an order requiring Texas to install air conditioning in its prisons, where researchers have found the heat index can exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. (E&E News)

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Regulators approve Georgia Power’s plan for three new gas units is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

EFFICIENCY: Critics slam Kentucky Power for its failure to be more ambitious with its energy efficiency programs amid data showing the utility’s poorest ratepayers used more electricity than average. (Kentucky Lantern)

SOLAR: 

• Mississippi regulators hear from Mississippi Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority about their plans to massively expand solar generation in the state, while critics worry about the growing sector’s effects on farmland. (Magnolia Tribune)
• Texas and Florida made up 38% of the 12 GW of new U.S. solar capacity that came online in the first half of 2024. (Utility Dive)
• A Tampa, Florida-based company lands a deal with the nation’s biggest homebuilder to provide its solar-powered streetlights to communities in California, Arizona, and across the Southeast. (Tampa Bay Times)

OIL & GAS: 

• Environmentalists plead with Georgia regulators to delay approval of Georgia Power’s request to build three new units at a power plant that would mostly run on natural gas but are capable of switching to low-sulfur diesel fuel. (Capitol Beat News Service)
• Critics ping Texas regulators for allowing poorly plugged oil and gas wells now causing a flurry of blow-outs and leaks across West Texas. (Reuters)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle registration in a metro Tennessee county has surged nearly sevenfold since 2019. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, subscription)

GEOTHERMAL: A Houston-based startup announces construction of a 3 MW geothermal energy storage facility on land leased from an electric cooperative at the site of a coal mine and coal-fired power plant. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID: Georgia Power tracks the state’s growing number of data centers and their demand on the power grid, including a company’s proposal to build two more in the Atlanta metro region. (Atlanta Business Chronicle, subscription)

COAL: The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice files for an injunction to stop the forced auction of a historic state resort that’s become the crown jewel of the coal baron’s business empire. (WV Metro News)

UTILITIES: A judge denies Texas utility CenterPoint Energy’s attempt to withdraw its request for a rate increase after receiving criticism over its response to Hurricane Beryl, prompting hopes by consumer advocates that regulators may order a rate decrease instead. (Houston Chronicle)

POLITICS: Georgia has received outsized benefits and investment under the federal climate package, but those gains could be undone if Donald Trump wins reelection. (Canary Media)

COMMENTARY: 

• Duke Energy should invest more in renewables rather than leaning on new natural gas generation, especially since failures at coal and gas plants led to rolling blackouts during 2022’s Winter Storm Elliott, writes a decarbonization advocate. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
• An environmental lawyer argues for legal and regulatory reform to allow Virginia utilities to meet both data center power demand and the state’s clean energy law, while the head of the state’s chamber of commerce wants an “all-of-the-above” energy policy that includes natural gas and nuclear. (Cardinal News)

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Cost spikes and delays threaten Texas oil’s carbon capture plans is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

GRID: 

• While hurricanes and wildfires prompted Florida and California to overhaul their power grids, Texas officials have responded to multiple disasters in recent years by allowing utilities to continue a costly pattern of destroy-and-rebuild. (Houston Chronicle)
• CenterPoint Energy officials tell Texas regulators they can’t cancel the lease for an $800 million fleet of large generators that went unused during response to Hurricane Beryl. (Utility Dive)

WIND: Texas propels the wind industry to surpass coal-fired power generation in the U.S. for two months straight for the first time ever, even as wind has outproduced coal in Texas for four years running. (San Antonio Express-News)

SOLAR: 

• An Arkansas city races to acquire land for a solar project to meet a deadline to qualify for Entergy’s one-to-one net metering credit. (Hot Springs Sentinel-Record)
• A Texas farmer says demand for livestock to maintain vegetation around solar panels has provided “the greatest opportunity for the sheep industry in my lifetime.” (Canary Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Georgia voters love the thousands of jobs accompanying a wave of electric vehicle and battery plants but still have big doubts about electric vehicles themselves, with some suggesting the new plants could be converted to making gas-powered automobiles. (Politico)

PIPELINES: 

• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials still haven’t delivered a timeline for completing an investigation of an early May rupture during high-pressure water testing before the pipeline entered service. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• A judge rejects new pipeline safety standards adopted by the Biden administration after an industry group sues over their cost. (Reuters)
• Louisiana officials investigate the death of an oil and gas worker in an offshore pipeline explosion. (WVUE)

OIL & GAS: 

• Chevron operates its own news outlet in the Permian Basin, using a San Francisco public relations firm to provide “news” and positive spin in a region with a shrinking number of local outlets. (Floodlight) 
• The U.S. oil and gas industry’s boom under President Biden illustrates how difficult it is for a president to stop or even slow oil production because of legal, political and market factors. (Washington Post)
• Virginia officials are concerned about the continued presence of 35 gasoline and diesel storage tanks that were decommissioned in 2018 and are now complicating efforts to redevelop 140 acres. (Cardinal News)

BIOMASS: A company builds a Louisiana plant to convert a sugar cane byproduct called bagasse into fuel pellets that can be burned at biomass plants. (The Advocate)

HYDROGEN: Officials with an Appalachia hydrogen hub planned for Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania say they’ll be more transparent about their plans now that federal funding has been awarded. (Allegheny Front)

CLIMATE: 

• Ernesto arrives way, way early as the season’s third hurricane, which experts say is an ominous sign of what’s to come as the climate continues to warm. (Grist)
• Texas lawmakers consider legislation to reform the insurance market after the state’s insurer-of-last-resort elects to raise rates for homeowners along the Gulf Coast. (Houston Chronicle)
• West Virginia residents still trying to recover from 2022 floods hope a $50,000 mitigation grant from the U.S. EPA will build resilience and reduce the intensity of flooding in the area. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

UTILITIES: A Tennessee municipal utility buys power from the Tennessee Valley Authority and adds a premium to fund its operations, and while its rates rank just above the state average, they’re still well below the national average. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

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Survey: Texas wind and solar workers face heat, racial pay disparities is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

OVERSIGHT: A Louisiana regulatory board quietly approves the $484 million sale of Entergy Louisiana’s gas distribution system to a private equity firm that’s given more than $200,000 in campaign donations to the five board members plus a past commissioner. (Floodlight)

WIND: As the burgeoning offshore wind industry faces economic and political headwinds, Dominion Energy is buying more leases and sinking investment into building the supply chain around its massive project near Virginia. (Politico, E&E News)

SOLAR: 

• Florida regulators report a 31% increase in renewable energy installations last year as people and businesses add rooftop solar. (Spectrum News)
• An energy company begins operation of a 180 MW solar farm in Arkansas that produces power for General Motors. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

OIL & GAS: 

• The U.S. oil and gas industry’s boom under President Biden illustrates how difficult it is for a president to stop or even slow oil production. (Washington Post)
• Air pollution from liquefied natural gas export terminals in the U.S. is responsible for an estimated 60 premature deaths and $957 million in health costs each year, environmental groups find. (The Guardian)

GRID:

• Texas’ grid operator is concerned that plans by San Antonio’s municipal utility to close three units at a power plant by next spring could put more pressure on an already-troubling transmission chokepoint and further destabilize an already wonky power grid. (Houston Chronicle)
• A Republican Texas Congress member who is retiring at the end of this term discusses why he thinks the state grid needs more natural gas and nuclear power until there’s a better way to store energy. (Texas Tribune)
• Duke Power restores power to the home of a Florida man who lost electricity for more than a week after his road flooded in the days following Tropical Storm Debby. (WCJB)
• The family of a South Carolina woman killed by a rotting utility pole will receive $30 million through a wrongful death settlement involving Dominion Energy and a communications company. (Associated Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• A Tennessee think tank urges state officials to update “outdated and arbitrary” zoning laws to facilitate more housing needed to accommodate an expected population boom following the completion of Ford’s BlueOval electric vehicle and battery complex. (Tennessee Lookout)
• Hyundai’s ambitious plans for its Georgia electric vehicle factory have been complicated by a spat over water with its neighbors. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

GEOTHERMAL: A new Texas high school is powered by geothermal energy from more than 4,000 wells that pump water from a large pond. (WFAA)

NUCLEAR: A company that makes a sodium-cooled fast fission reactor receives letters of intent for roughly 1,350 MW of microreactor capacity, including for an energy company’s oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin. (Utility Dive)

COAL: Coal industry leaders gather in West Virginia for a three-day symposium about mining safety and the fossil fuel’s future. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

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Southeast “battery belt” expands with new N.C. factory is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

ALSO:

• Solar industry officials pitch a panel of Georgia lawmakers on the benefits of establishing a community solar program to allow Georgia Power’s customers to purchase clean energy from third-party developers. (Jackson Progress-Argus)
• A Kentucky county board debates whether to revise its solar decommissioning rules ahead of considering a proposed 150 MW solar farm. (Owensboro Times)

WIND: 

• Dominion Energy picks up a third offshore wind lease in the Mid-Atlantic, just east of the area near Virginia where it’s building a 2,600 MW, 176-turbine wind farm. (Virginia Mercury)
• A Virginia funeral home will lose part of its property through eminent domain for construction of transmission lines from Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm. (WAVY)

OIL & GAS: 

• Donald Trump vows to increase domestic oil and gas production, but Texas is already producing record amounts of fossil fuels — including so much natural gas that producers are losing money. (Texas Tribune)
• A federal court’s decision to rescind regulatory approval of two liquefied natural gas export terminals and related pipelines won’t stop construction of one of the projects for at least several more weeks unless regulators intervene, says a lawyer. (My RGV)
• An eight-mile stretch of Louisiana bayou reopens to boat traffic as cleanup of a 34,000-gallon oil spill continues. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• West Virginia is eligible to apply for more than $43 million in federal funding to clean up oil and gas wells in the third phase of a grant program. (WV News)

CARBON CAPTURE: 

• Records show how the oil and gas industry courted a professor at the University of Louisiana Lafayette to support its push for a regulatory change to speed up approval of carbon capture projects. (The Lens)
• The U.S. EPA signs off on Louisiana’s plan to remove owner liability for carbon capture and storage wells, saying the wells still have to meet federal requirements over a 50-year monitoring period before the liability transfer occurs. (Bloomberg, subscription)

COAL: The son of a late coal baron has acquired an Alabama coal mine that nearby residents say caused a fatal home explosion earlier this year. (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES: CenterPoint Energy, now under fire for its response to widespread outages in Houston after Hurricane Beryl, has courted dozens of current and former state lawmakers at its private conference center. (Houston Chronicle)

POLITICS: 

• A new report indicates 85% of the investment and 68% of the jobs incentivized by federal climate legislation have gone to congressional districts represented by Republicans who voted against it, including some who continue to argue climate change is a hoax. (Floodlight)
• The Inflation Reduction Act has led to nearly $35 billion in investments in clean energy in the Carolinas in the two years since it was passed. (WSOC)
• Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred works to court the state’s oil and gas industry by criticizing the Biden administration’s pause of permitting for liquified natural gas export terminals, questioning the reliability of electric bus fleets, and vowing to protect industry jobs. (Houston Chronicle)

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Solar finds mixed reception in Virginia is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.