Court pauses Tennessee pipeline permits amid legal battle

PIPELINES: A federal court temporarily halts two permits to build a 32-mile Tennessee pipeline to a coal plant the Tennessee Valley Authority plans to retire and replace with a gas-fired power plant to let a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the plan be heard. (Tennessean, Associated Press)

ALSO: Texas officials investigate apparent gaps in pollution reports filed by the company that owns a pipeline where a fire burned for several days last month. (Houston Chronicle)

OIL & GAS:

• San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility considers the likelihood the state grid operator will force it to continue running three 60-year-old gas-fired power plants that had been scheduled for closure because they’re situated near a transmission trouble spot. (Houston Chronicle)
• A company restores an Alabama plant that had been converted for renewable diesel back to more conventional production of petroleum-based products. (Oil & Gas Journal)
• Federal officials launch an investigation after two workers are killed and at least 35 injured when a Texas refinery released the toxic chemical hydrogen sulfide. (Houston Chronicle)

WIND: An energy company holds a public meeting to discuss its plans to build a 180 MW wind farm in Arkansas. (KYTV)

GRID:

• Fewer than 5,000 people in central Florida still don’t have power after Hurricane Milton as utility crews continue to make repairs. (Orlando Sentinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants to take another look at a state law after a legal loophole and reluctance by some gas station owners to deploy generators led to fuel shortages after Hurricane Milton. (Florida Phoenix)

TRANSITION: A subsidiary of American Electric Power seeks proposals for up to 2,100 MW of natural gas, wind, solar and battery storage to replace a coal plant it’s dismantling in Texas. (Power Engineering)

CLIMATE:

• Texas officials reject a proposal by the state’s insurer-of-last-resort for a 10% rate increase for about a quarter-million residential and commercial properties on the coast. (Houston Chronicle)
• Virginia officials say Hurricane Helene cost farmers in the state at least $139 million, and that number is likely to increase. (WVTF)
• Though some neighborhoods are still recovering from damage inflicted by Hurricane Milton, Floridians begin to return to life as normal. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES: Questions arise about Duke Energy’s future in a Kentucky city after its council approves a franchise agreement with another electric company, which Duke declined to bid on because it believes such an agreement is unnecessary. (Link NKY)

COMMENTARY: Florida’s Republican lawmakers are willfully denying climate change by removing the phrase from state law even as Florida is wracked by record-breaking temperatures and severe hurricanes, writes a journalist. (The Nation)