COAL: An Appalachian Power official tells West Virginia regulators the utility continued to operate three coal-fired power plants that lost a combined $87 million over the last year because excessive coal inventories on site threatened worker safety. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

  • Electric vehicle maker Rivian’s ho-hum second-quarter financials don’t reflect its recent partnership with Volkswagen and announcement of a second generation of its flagship vehicle models, which could help the struggling company turn a profit and restart its plan to build a Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  • Workers at a Nissan plant in Mississippi consider pushing to unionize after watching similar efforts succeed in Tennessee and fail in Alabama. (WWNO)

SOLAR: 

WIND: Federal officials mail surveys to residents on the Gulf Coast to gauge their feelings about offshore wind energy development. (KPLC)

GRID: 

OIL & GAS: 

CLIMATE: 

  • Tropical Storm Debby causes flooding, power outages and damage in a part of Florida still recovering from last year’s Category 4 Hurricane Idalia. (E&E News)
  • The U.S. Geological Survey installs its fourth extensometer in coastal Virginia to more precisely measure the rate of sinking land, which is moving twice as fast as sea levels are rising. (WHRO)

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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.