Critics question Louisiana’s efficiency ​“patronage” system

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EFFICIENCY

• An energy watchdog criticizes Louisiana’s system of giving half the revenue from a monthly energy efficiency fee to the five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission to spend on projects in their districts as a wasteful ​“patronage” system with few rules, almost no competitive bidding, an opaque selection process, and no independent audits. (Floodlight)

EMISSIONS

• North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein considers whether to sign a bill to eliminate a goal that Duke Energy reduce its carbon emissions 70% from 2005 levels by 2030, while retaining a longer-term goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. (Wilmington StarNews)

• The U.S. Department of Energy allows Duke Energy to exceed emissions limits in its power plant permits in North Carolina and South Carolina during this week’s heat wave. (Utility Dive)

• The Fort Worth, Texas, city council approves a permit allowing FedEx to continue operating a trucking storage site despite nearby residents’ concerns about environmental racism, although the company’s lawyer agreed to install an air quality monitor. (Fort Worth Report)

SOLAR

• A sweeping new Texas law regulates sales practices around residential solar, creating a licensing system for salespeople and requiring installers to carry insurance. (San Antonio Express-News)

HYDROGEN

• Hyundai announces plans to build a $6 billion hydrogen-integrated steel mill in Louisiana, beginning with blue hydrogen produced from natural gas before shifting to carbon-free green hydrogen. (New Orleans City Business)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Texas oil companies largely blow off Trump’s calls to ​“drill, baby, drill” amid disruption in the Middle East, with a trade association official saying that decision will be determined by crude oil prices and not geopolitics. (Houston Chronicle)

• Cheniere Energy approves a $2.9 billion expansion of its Texas liquified natural gas export facility to increase production by 3 million metric tons a year. (Houston Chronicle)

• Officials from Pony Oil tell a Texas judge that ExxonMobil subsidiary Pioneer Natural Resources ​“fabricated” its lawsuit accusing Pony of signing so-called top leases on Pioneer’s acreage that prevented it from drilling 11 planned wells. (Houston Chronicle)

• Alabama-based Diversified Energy announces a deal with Carlyle to invest up to $2 billion in natural gas and oil assets. (AL.com)

• Federal officials approve Columbia Gas Transmission’s request to put a 3.4-mile pipeline in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle into service. (Morgan Messenger)

GEOTHERMAL

• An Arkansas airport commission authorizes $96.3 million to build a new geothermal system and central utility plant at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

NUCLEAR

• Kentucky regulators invite public comment on the prospect of developing more nuclear power plants in the state. (Kentucky Lantern)

CLIMATE

• Scientists say climate change is causing more hotter-than-average summer days and has contributed to the heat dome that’s currently baking the Carolinas and East Coast. (WRAL)

• North Carolina’s state Senate unanimously passes a $2.6 billion Tropical Storm Helene recovery package, but the legislation is stalled after the state House unanimously disagrees with senators’ changes to the bill. (Carolina Public Press)

COMMENTARY

• Conversations around Google’s plans to purchase land in a western Virginia county for a data center have obscured what it means for the state’s emerging energy crisis, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• LG Energy Solution cuts the ribbon on its expanded Michigan EV battery factory, where it invested $1.4 billion to start making grid-scale batteries as well, Julian Spector reports.

• New York legislators vote to repeal a decades-old rule that guaranteed building owners a free gas hookup if they were within 100 feet of a line, which advocates hope will incentivize home electrification, Alison F. Takemura reports.