Battle over Duke’s solar credit cuts heads to court

SOLAR: A North Carolina court hears a challenge to Duke Energy’s reduced payments for rooftop solar arrays, which were part of an agreement between the utility, clean energy groups and some solar installers, but which have resulted in a drastic reduction in business for others. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:

• Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy offer community-based solar programs in Florida as the state’s solar sector accelerates. (Naples Daily News, Florida Today)
• A Virginia sheep farmer partners with an energy company to maintain vegetation at its solar farm. (Times Virginian)
• An energy company offers a tour of its 1.2 MW floating solar array on a Florida retention pond. (PowerGrid International)

OIL & GAS:

• Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warns that if state utilities don’t build more new natural gas-fired power plants, the state will build them itself. (Houston Chronicle)
• A North Carolina lawmaker introduces a bill to block oil and gas companies from drilling on property without the landowner’s consent. (Greensboro News & Record, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Battery supplier LG Chem announces a $19 billion deal to supply General Motors with electric vehicle battery materials produced at its Tennessee plant. (Detroit News)
• A West Virginia school district intends to purchase electric school buses even after the U.S. EPA rescinded funding for it and seven other districts over an analysis that apparently used air miles instead of road miles. (WV Metro News)
• An engineering professor points to a February day in which wind and solar provided 70% of Texas’ energy needs as evidence that electric vehicles reduce greenhouse emissions even when they’re charged with power from the grid. (KPRC)

COAL ASH: The U.S. EPA reports ​“widespread noncompliance” with its coal ash rule, in part because of a loophole that excluded older landfills, ponds and fill sites. (Inside Climate News)

RENEWABLES: A federal study concludes Puerto Rico can transition entirely to renewables by 2050, but the shift could hurt low-income residents, and at least 400 MW of new generation are needed now to address current shortfalls. (Utility Dive)

EMISSIONS: An analysis by a business group shows the U.S. EPA’s new, more stringent restrictions on fine particulate matter could push Texas’ metro areas into nonattainment status, likely forcing them to add more pollution controls or risk losing federal funding. (Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle)

POLITICS:

• West Virginia lawmakers let languish legislation to prevent oil and gas operators from abandoning wells, while taking up another bill to exempt certain companies from a requirement to ​“promptly” plug their wells. (Mountain State Spotlight)
• In his first month in office, climate change-denying Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has already staffed environmental jobs with oil and gas executives, targeted a state climate task force, and changed the name of the agency that oversees the fossil fuel industry to emphasize energy production. (Verite News/​Floodlight)

PIPELINES: Virginia residents complain about mud flooding related to construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (WSLS)

CLIMATE: New Orleans considers a stormwater fee to remedy ongoing flooding problems caused by aging infrastructure, subsidence and extreme rainfall exacerbated by climate change. (WWNO)

UTILITIES:

• The Tennessee Valley Authority and Tennessee Public Power Association take part in a discussion of a troubled Mississippi municipal utility. (South Reporter)
• The head of Memphis, Tennessee’s municipal utility says winter weather and ​“unprecedented electric demand” resulted in higher-than-usual utility bills for customers. (WMC)