OIL & GAS: Texas regulators announce they’ll investigate whether fracking is responsible for earthquakes in a county that recently experienced 61 seismic events in a week. (Houston Chronicle, Abilene Reporter-News)

ALSO:

TRANSITION: The Biden administration has ushered in billions in investment in West Virginia’s clean energy infrastructure while simultaneously opening the door for more fossil fuel growth, yet remains deeply unpopular with voters. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

SOLAR: A federal board files a lawsuit challenging amendments to a law that extends Puerto Rico’s one-to-one net metering policy until at least 2031. (Associated Press) 

WIND: Federal officials again gauge interest in offshore wind lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico after a company expresses interest in developing a commercial wind facility near Texas. (Louisiana Illuminator)

CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Forest Service is considering a draft rule to allow carbon storage under federal land after twice denying a company’s requests to do so under national forests in Louisiana and Mississippi. (Floodlight/Mississippi Today)

GRID: 

BUILDINGS: A growing number of North Carolina officials call for a reversal of a state law that blocks building code updates until 2031, which Gov. Roy Cooper says will affect insurance and potentially cause the state to miss out on federal disaster recovery funding. (Port City Daily)

TRANSIT: Public transportation advocates launch a campaign to secure tens of millions of dollars to restore New Orleans’ bus transit service to levels of service not seen since Hurricane Katrina severely disrupted the system. (NOLA.com)

HYDROGEN: Researchers find elevated levels of hydrogen around geological features known as Carolina Bays, suggesting the possibility of “white” or “gold” hydrogen wells. (Sierra) 

EMISSIONS: A federal appeals court declines to block the U.S. EPA’s new rules restricting emissions from coal and new gas-fired power plants, though it will still consider a case brought by West Virginia and other states. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

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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.