COAL ASH: Georgia Power faces big questions about its plan to clean up coal ash at power plants across the state — including whether the U.S. EPA will go along after it nixed a similar scheme in Alabama. (Grist/WABE)

ALSO: North Carolina residents ask the U.S. EPA to investigate the extent of coal ash contamination in a town after extracting samples with “elevated radioactivity.” (WCNC)

TRANSITION: West Virginia regulators consider renewing an air permit for a coal-fired power plant slated for conversion to a hydrogen-powered graphite production facility after its co-owner is sued for making false statements to receive funding. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

UTILITIES: 

  • A Dominion Energy subsidiary missed a 2022 energy savings target in Virginia, which environmentalists argue means it can’t receive a $6 million performance bonus and casts doubt on the utility’s application to build new natural gas-fired power plant units. (Utility Dive)
  • A Florida city council is set to vote today on whether to investigate breaking with Duke Energy to create its own energy utility. (Spectrum News)

STORAGE: Chattanooga, Tennessee’s electric utility plans to add 36 MW of battery storage at two decommissioned substations as part of a plan to save money and add a total 150 MW of capacity to boost grid reliability. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

WIND: A company’s unsolicited request for an offshore wind lease in the Gulf of Mexico is reviving hope around the sector after federal officials previously canceled a lease auction later this year for “lack of competitive interest.” (Utility Dive)

GRID: 

OIL & GAS: 

CLIMATE: 

HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department issues $30 million toward the development of a hydrogen hub in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (WV News)

SOLAR: A Korean energy company sells a 260 MW solar project in Texas to another Korean company. (Renewables Now)

POLITICS: West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s support of a sweeping climate law has benefited the state with new manufacturing and energy projects, but is still unpopular with voters and may have hastened the end of his time in Congress. (E&E News)

COMMENTARY: A company’s proposal to mine mineral sands near the Okefenokee Swamp could disrupt the swamp’s status as a carbon sink, writes a conservationist. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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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.