PIPELINES: Residents who live along the Mountain Valley Pipeline complain that Virginia regulators are ignoring erosion and pollution complaints as construction nears completion. (WVTF)

ALSO: The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s biggest stakeholder announces it will merge with its former owner, Pittsburgh gas company EQT, in a $5.5 billion stock deal. (Cardinal News; Bloomberg, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

  • A new report finds North Carolina leads the country with $8.9 billion in new electric vehicle manufacturing and battery supply chain investments since August, and trails only Georgia and Michigan with a total of $19.2 billion in EV and battery investments in recent years. (Raleigh News & Observer)
  • A Georgia lawmaker misrepresents why a planned 500-home subdivision near Hyundai’s planned electric vehicle factory was canceled. (Savannah Morning News)
  • Florida’s Miami-Dade school system receives $19 million from the U.S. EPA for 50 electric school buses. (WTVJ)

SOLAR: 

OIL & GAS: 

  • Texas oil companies are charging ahead with drilling test wells for carbon capture in a race to capture federal permits and incentives available through the Biden administration’s climate package. (Houston Chronicle)
  • Texas sues the U.S. EPA’s over its methane emissions rule that would mandate better leak monitoring and other emissions-reducing measures. (The Hill)
  • A Texas group leads oil producers challenging federal rules that would require them to report their greenhouse gas emissions. (Bloomberg, subscription)

COAL: 

UTILITIES: The prosecution rests and defense begins its case in the trial of two former executives who are accused of scheming to collect bonuses by privatizing Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility. (WTLV)

CLIMATE: 

  • A study finds the Gulf Coast is rapidly sinking, with Louisiana especially threatened by rising seas. (WSB-TV)
  • Texas officials say the largest wildfire in state history is now 89% contained, but caution that forecasted weather conditions could lead to more blazes. (Texas Tribune)
  • Virginia lawmakers pass a bill allowing localities to impose restrictions on developers to preserve the tree canopy and its climate benefits, but builders warn the measure could significantly drive up their costs. (Virginia Mercury)
  • A study ranks Richmond, Virginia, as the most climate-resilient city in the U.S., based largely on an extremely low score in a federal index which determines vulnerability to natural disasters. (WRIC)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

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.