Arkansas net-metering bill threatens state’s solar boom

SOLAR: Arkansas lawmakers introduce legislation to roll back the state’s net-metering program, which a coalition of advocates and businesses says would threaten the state’s recent solar boom. (Arkansas Advocate)

ALSO:
• San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility signs deals to acquire power from a 100 MW solar farm and a natural gas-fired power plant. (San Antonio Express-News)
• Construction progresses on a 147 MW solar farm in west Texas. (PV Magazine)

WIND:
• Dominion Energy’s CEO tells investors that its 2.6 GW offshore wind farm near Virginia is ​“very much on track and on budget.” (Reuters)
• A clean energy developer grows its presence in Oklahoma with 14 wind farms completed or under construction since 2012. (Journal Record)

OIL & GAS: More than 5,000 workers who helped clean up BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have filed medical claims against the company but have not received compensation. (WWL-TV)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Kentucky economic development official touts a program to market the region’s proximity to electric vehicle battery production centers in Kentucky and Tennessee. (Murray Ledger & Times)

STORAGE:
• West Virginia lawmakers hotly debate a $105 million incentive package for a planned iron-air battery factory. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
• A global developer hires its first employees for a planned Tennessee plant to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide. (Chattanoogan)

CLIMATE:
• Severe winter storms continue to prompt debate in Texas over how to prepare local infrastructure for extreme weather. (Texas Tribune)
• Federal officials discuss a $1 billion project to raise and flood-proof 4,000 homes instead of building a controversial dam that would heavily impact Black residents who would have to be bought out. (The Advocate)

CARBON CAPTURE:
• Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards presses federal officials to respond to the state’s request to regulate wells that store carbon dioxide in the ground. (E&E News, subscription)
• A carbon-capture facility attached to a Texas coal plant may resume production after nearly three years of inoperation due to low oil prices. (E&E News, subscription)

COAL:
• West Virginia lawmakers approve legislation to exempt coal sold to in-state power plants from severance tax, potentially costing the state more than $20 million annually. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)
• West Virginia lawmakers advance a resolution urging Mon Power to buy a coal-fired power plant slated for closure this year. (WV Metro News)
• A coal-industry trade group deletes its member list after losing its final investor-owned utility members when Southern Company and American Electric Power left in 2019. (Energy and Policy Institute)
• Virginia regulators fine a rail company for a 2020 train derailment that spilled more than 1,000 tons of coal into the Roanoke River. (Roanoke Times)

OVERSIGHT:
• A Virginia county board discusses but decides against amending its zoning ordinances to require special exceptions for data center, battery storage facility and solar farm proposals. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
• An Arkansas Congress member chairs the first hearing this year of the U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee, immediately spotlighting partisan differences on fossil fuels. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

ACTIVISM: A nonprofit that tries to rally voters around clean energy concerns expands its presence to Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states. (NBC News)

COMMENTARY: Virginia lawmakers should pass bills to allow shared solar programs, which would lower power bills and expand clean energy, writes a Republican county supervisor. (Cardinal News)