Court upholds EPA’s mountaintop mining rejection

COAL:
• A federal court upholds the EPA’s veto of a permit to remove a mountaintop for a proposed coal mining project in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Two West Virginia companies sue two drilling operators after they allegedly failed to notify the companies that a borehole penetrated one or more water sources. (West Virginia Record)

COAL ASH:
• Duke Energy asks a judge to block release of a state scientist’s testimony in a lawsuit over water safety near ash basins. (Raleigh News & Observer)
• The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club lauds a congressman and state senator for their legislative proposals to tighten ash disposal rules. (Greater Alexandria Patch)

STORAGE: Kentucky is spotlighted as one of five U.S. states where commercial energy storage is taking off. (Greentech Media)

CLIMATE: Regulators in South Carolina and other states may oppose the Clean Power Plan, but they are quietly preparing to comply. (New York Times)

NUCLEAR:
• Miami-Dade County commissioners want Florida Power & Light to set a date to close cooling canals at its Turkey Point plant. (Miami Herald)
• South Carolina Electric & Gas says its doing a good job managing the $14 billion construction of two new reactors. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES: A Duke Energy consultant says its merger with Piedmont Natural Gas, which could close by October, won’t hurt small power generators. (Charlotte Business Journal, Charlotte Observer)

SOLAR:
• Louisiana says homeowners have applied for more tax credits this year than an entire three-year program can cover. (Associated Press)
• Nine facts about solar in the Southeast help explain where it is, and isn’t, thriving. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
• The Navy partners with Dominion Virginia Power to propose a 21-megawatt system at a base near Virginia Beach. (The Virginian-Pilot)
• St. Petersburg, Florida is the first city in the greater Tampa Bay area to host a bulk-purchasing coop. (SaintPetersBlog)
• An industry executive urges Tennessee to follow the leads of Georgia and North Carolina to enable the market for solar and the jobs it can create. (Public News Service)
• Residents of a Virginia town raise aesthetic concerns about a proposed solar project. (GoDanRiver.com)
• Backers of a solar system in North Carolina tout its win-win benefits for local government and area farmers. (Time Warner Cable News)
• Three northern Virginia communities celebrate a competition to motivate their residents to consider rooftop solar systems. (Falls Church News-Press)

WIND:
• Tempers flare as commissioners in a Tennessee county reject two resolutions opposing a proposed wind farm there. (Crossville Chronicle)
• The developer of what would be Virginia’s largest wind farm near Roanoke opens a second comment period slated for Aug. 4 to Sept. 6. (Roanoke Times)

FRACKING: A growing controversy over fracking waste from West Virginia dumped in a Kentucky landfill prompts a legislative hearing. (Public News Service)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: An Alabama utility commissioner says that under the Clean Power Plan, ​“the South is thrown under the bus.” (Alexandria City Outlook)

COMMENTARY:
• Solar has unrealized potential in Florida. (SunSentinel)
• A professor who assailed North Carolina’s renewables strategy regularly receives money from the oil and gas industry. (Progressive Pulse)