Analysis: High utility bills and service shutoffs worsened pandemic’s toll

UTILITIES: Research shows high bills and shutoffs by utilities played a role in putting Black, Brown and Indigenous communities at a disproportionate risk of hospitalization and death during the pandemic, even as companies received federal funds and boosted executive compensation. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• Entergy Arkansas files an energy plan with state regulators that replaces a previous proposal to build a new natural-gas plant with more solar development. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• San Antonio’s municipal utility feels pressure from credit-rating agencies to increase rates while its customers are still behind on bills from February’s winter storm. (San Antonio Express-News)

POLITICS:
• As U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin strips climate provisions from Democrats’ spending package, analyses suggest that not reducing emissions now will ensure West Virginia pays more in human and financial costs later. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Virginia’s transportation department expects the state’s $7 billion allotment in the newly passed federal infrastructure package will go to roads, bridges, electric vehicle charging stations, and addressing climate change. (WRC-TV)

WIND: The projected cost of Dominion Energy’s wind turbine project off Virginia’s coast jumps nearly $2 billion to $9.8 billion. (Virginia Mercury)

GRID:
• Texas regulators wrestle with how to harden the state’s electric grid and navigate a market redesign in a state that consumes one-seventh of all energy in the U.S. (Dallas Morning News)
• An Austin, Texas, task force prepares to announce an ambitious set of recommendations based on the shortcomings of the city’s response to February’s winter storm. (Austin Monitor)
• An Arkansas committee concludes the state fared well during the winter storm but still should make improvements to communication, infrastructure and planning for reliable energy. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

OVERSIGHT: Louisiana residents and environmental groups ask federal regulators to sanction a steel-maker over its history of air pollution. (The Advocate)

CLIMATE: Rising seas threaten a coastal South Carolina community with advancing ​“ghost forests” and emerging effects on fish, wildlife and marine resources. (NPR)

OIL & GAS: Several Texas and Louisiana liquified natural gas projects could move forward in 2022 after months of pandemic- and price-related delays. (Reuters)

COAL:
• The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case from the coal industry and a coalition of red states that seeks to limit the EPA’s ability to regulate emissions poses a threat to President Biden’s climate plans. (Inside Climate News)
• Four former coal officials at a now-bankrupt company begin trial today in Kentucky for allegedly ordering workers to dodge federal air quality rules. (Associated Press)
• West Virginia’s tax department asks a county’s commissioners to exonerate a coal-mining company of more than $800,000 in tax obligations because an employee miscalculated the amount. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

PIPELINES: The Colonial Pipeline buys up property in North Carolina near the site of a leak that became the largest gasoline spill in state history. (N.C. Policy Watch)

COMMENTARY:​Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards brings a refreshing realism to COP26 by acknowledging concern over a shift from oil and gas but focusing on jobs in the new energy economy, writes an editorial board. (The Advocate)