SOLAR: Louisiana regulators approve a sleeved power purchase agreement to purchase power from non-utility sources for a coalition of 26 companies, including some of the state’s largest industrial giants, that have grown frustrated with the lack of renewables available from utilities. (Louisiana Illuminator)

ALSO:

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

CLEAN ENERGY: Columbus, Georgia, business leaders say they’re building out the area’s higher education systems and freeing up land in hopes of taking part in the clean energy manufacturing boom that’s seen $32 billion invested in the state since 2021. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)

OIL & GAS:

HYDRO: A federal loan program provides $16.6 million for construction of the third of six planned hydroelectric plants in Kentucky, while a grant will fund solar power at a farm. (Kentucky Lantern)

GRID: A Virginia county supervisor proposes requiring new data centers to build on-site power to limit the use of eminent domain and construction of new transmission lines. (Loudoun Times-Mirror)

EMISSIONS: Researchers find plumes of toxic gas at the fenceline of some chemical plants in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” to be more than 1,000 times higher than what the U.S. EPA deems “an acceptable risk.” (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES:

COAL: Businesses owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice reach a settlement with a Virginia bank over roughly $300 million in outstanding loans, but now face the prospect of the forced sale of a coal company to satisfy different debts. (Cardinal News, WV Metro News)

COMMENTARY: A college student interviews climate activist Bill McKibben about the campaign to push the Tennessee Valley Authority away from building new natural gas-fired power plants toward solar power. (Tennessean)

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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.