Departing FPL leader’s tenure marked by transition, scandal

UTILITIES: Florida Power & Light’s CEO announces he’ll step down next month after reporting tied him to a consulting firm accused of meddling in state and local campaigns and taking over a news website to attack critics. (Tampa Bay Times/​Miami Herald)

GRID: Puerto Rico awards a 10-year contract to a natural gas company to operate its aging fossil fuel-fired power plants, sparking criticism about a lack of transparency around the deal and its potential to slow the transition to renewables. (NBC News, Inside Climate News)

COAL ASH: The U.S. EPA denies a Texas coal plant’s request to continue dumping toxic ash into an unlined pit as part of a broader action against six plants nationally. (Energy News Network, news release)

SOLAR:
• Tampa Electric brings three new solar projects online, helping it surpass 1,000 MW of solar power as it transitions from coal. (WTVT)
• A South Carolina city approves a zoning change to allow the construction of two 100 MW solar farms. (Georgetown County News)
• The municipal utility in Jacksonville, Florida, signs a deal granting it access to 150 MW of solar power produced by Florida Power & Light. (Jacksonville Daily Record)
• An official with a South Korean company expanding its manufacturing facilities in Georgia says it wants to relieve a global supply crunch while capitalizing on solar module demand. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Hyundai announces it will spend $8.5 billion on vehicle electrification this year, primarily on research and development and on building a new factory in Georgia. (Bloomberg)
• U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia moves to delay new tax credits for electric vehicles over loopholes to bypass requirements that EV batteries be made in North America. (Associated Press)
• The federal funding fueling construction of Florida’s electric vehicle charging network comes from spending legislation its Republican elected officials opposed. (CleanTechnica)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: U.S. EPA officials meet with members of a historic Black community in central Virginia that seek a study on the environmental impacts of several nearby industrial facilities. (Bay Journal)

OIL & GAS: West Virginia coal industry officials vocally oppose the construction of natural gas plants and pipelines as state lawmakers advance a bill to expedite permitting for natural gas projects. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Charleston Gazette-Mail)

PIPELINES:
• Federal officials identify a conflict of interest by a contractor that monitors environmental compliance by the Mountain Valley Pipeline because it works on multiple projects by four of the five companies behind the pipeline. (Roanoke Times)
• A West Virginia county secures state and federal funding to build a $6 million natural gas pipeline extension to an industrial park. (WVVA)

STORAGE: A company agrees to buy a yet-to-be-built 75 MW battery storage project in Texas. (Renewables Now)

CLIMATE:
• Data reveals 214 people were killed by heat in Texas last year, more than half of whom were likely migrants who were crossing the border. (Texas Tribune)
• Rising seas and urban sprawl squeeze a Texas county, especially renters and minorities. (Houston Chronicle)

COMMENTARY:
• The impending departure of Florida Power & Light’s CEO completes a major shift in the Southeast’s hierarchy of investor-owned power, writes a columnist. (Florida Times-Union)
• An editorial board calls for passage of legislation to lift a federal cap to allow Louisiana and other states to receive a greater share of offshore drilling revenue. (NOLA.com)
• Virginia’s divided state legislature may still pass bills to facilitate use of solar by schools, build resiliency and ease the purchase of low-cost clean energy, writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)