POLITICS: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signs a milestone energy bill to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s power plants by 2030 while also allowing Duke Energy to seek multiyear rate increases and performance-based earnings incentives. (Associated Press)

WIND: The Biden administration announces plans to develop seven major new offshore wind farms, including in the Carolinas and the Gulf of Mexico. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to approve $3.9 billion in costs and its plans to extend federal licenses to keep two nuclear plants running beyond 2050. (Virginia Mercury)

COAL ASH: A new report finds fully remediating coal ash disposal sites in the Ohio Valley would create more jobs and protect communities as more coal plants close. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

SOLAR:
• Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities ask Kentucky regulators to approve plans to supply five large energy users with power from a 125 MW solar farm. (WFPL)
• A school district board approves tax abatements for a solar facility on 1,200 acres in Texas. (Uvalde Leader News)

OIL & GAS: Residents of Louisiana’s Caddo Parish complain about loud noise from drilling and fracking operations. (KTBS)

COAL: A power generation service company plans to implode a Texas coal-fired plant in hopes of redeveloping the site for solar and battery storage. (WTAW)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp urge congressional leaders to remove language from Democrats’ reconciliation package that increases tax incentive for electric cars built in union plants. (SC Now, Global Atlanta)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: North Carolina’s commercial poultry farms disproportionately affect nearby Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities but face little regulation when it comes to managing waste laden with nitrogen and phosphorus. (Inside Climate News)

CLIMATE: Virginia begins allocating $7.8 million in carbon auction money from a regional cap-and-trade market toward flood preparedness and resiliency planning. (Virginia Mercury)

BIOFUELS: An energy company breaks ground on a $950 million expansion of a renewable diesel plant in Louisiana. (WAFB)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A Minnesota-based cryptocurrency company that wants to build a facility near a North Carolina elementary school faces pushback from concerned parents and residents. (Reflector)

BUSINESS: Shell solar subsidiary Silicon Ranch buys Tennessee renewable energy company Clearloop. (news release)

UTILITIES: An energy exchange consisting of the Southeast’s largest utilities moves forward after federal regulators deadlock on a vote. (news release)

COMMENTARY:
• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s remarks that attracting more cryptocurrency companies can provide grid protection display a misunderstanding of what caused the Texas blackouts that accompanied February’s winter storm and how bitcoin miners operate, writes a journalist. (Ars Technica)
• Failure by federal regulators to approve an energy exchange in the Southeast and the fact the proposal advanced anyway demonstrates why it cannot be the last step towards wholesale market reform, writes a regional clean energy group. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)

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.