Changes to North Carolina’s energy policy could benefit solar

SOLAR:
• New energy legislation under consideration in North Carolina might allow third-party energy sales and streamline the permitting process for solar projects. (Coastal Review Online)
• Florida Power & Light announces plans to install 100 ​“solar trees” around the state. (News 13)

WIND: Prices for offshore wind are falling dramatically, making leases in places like the Carolina coast more attractive. (Bloomberg)

EPA: Former North Carolina DEQ secretary Donald van der Vaart is still in the running for deputy administrator of the EPA. (E&E News)

POLICY: The chief of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality talks about his vision for the agency. (Southeast Energy News)

NUCLEAR:
• Westinghouse Electric, the U.S. nuclear power plant developer owned by Toshiba, hires bankruptcy attorneys, but no official decision to file for bankruptcy has been made. (Reuters)
• A representative from South Carolina asks for congressional support to move more nuclear waste out of the state. (McClatchy)

CLEAN ENERGY: Researchers at an Alabama university are developing more affordable, less wasteful energy sources from methane in landfills. (AL.com)

OIL & GAS: Louisiana is lagging below the national average in employment, largely because of a downturn in the oil and gas industries. (Times-Picayune)

FRACKING: Florida lawmakers are considering two bills that would allow Florida Power & Light to charge its customers for oil and gas exploration, including fracking-related drilling. (Palm Beach Post)

PIPELINES:
• A federal ruling to approve a natural gas pipeline in South Carolina is being challenged by an environmental advocacy group. (Greenville News)
• Residents of a West Virginia community are asking for ​“transparency and truth” about a natural gas pipeline that would run from West Virginia to North Carolina (The Wilson Times)

COAL:
• A rollback in environmental regulations by the Trump administration is bringing optimism to the American Coal Council’s Spring Coal Forum in Florida. (Platts)
• A repeal of Obamacare and the expiration of miners’ health protections could make it hard for retired coal miners to get health care. (WKU)

UTILITIES: The mayor of a Kentucky town is arrested for giving an order to overcharge customers by $107,000 for natural gas. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• Tennessee should pass a 7-cent increase on gasoline and diesel taxes to pay for infrastructure, but it must overcome conservative opposition first, says an editorial by the Memphis Flyer.
• A state senator says lifting the moratorium for nuclear power facilities in Kentucky would add a ​“source of reliable energy generation that would spur job creation” in the state. (Marshall County Daily)

CORRECTION: An item in yesterday’s digest misidentified the fuel source of a power plant being pursued by two FirstEnergy subsidiaries. It is coal, not natural gas.