Disgraced coal boss seeks Manchin’s Senate seat

POLITICS: A wealthy former coal boss who spent a year in jail for conspiring to violate mine safety rules registers to run as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in West Virginia. (WV Metro News, E&E News)

UTILITIES:

• Nearly 100 small, largely public-owned utilities are exempt from a state requirement to delay disconnecting power service for seriously ill customers — potentially threatening their lives when their treatment requires electricity. (ProPublica)
• An audit of two FirstEnergy subsidiaries in West Virginia finds that customers didn’t pay any costs related to a bribery scandal in Ohio. (WTRF)
• South Carolina’s state-owned Santee Cooper looks to pass $600 million in unbudgeted expenses to ratepayers. (Post and Courier)

COAL ASH: Alabama Power announces a partnership with a cement company to harvest 22 million yards of coal ash from a coal- and gas-fired power plant and repurpose it into concrete products. (AL.com)

SOLAR:

• A Virginia solar business helps a winery and other clients navigate the process of obtaining federal grants to pay for solar installations. (Daily Progress)
• A member of a Virginia county board that made changes to its solar ordinance last month wants to add another reclamation requirement specifically for topsoil. (News Leader)
• A developer announces plans to build a 100 MW solar farm plus battery storage in South Carolina. (Times and Democrat)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A Georgia school district opts not to apply for electric school buses despite two of its neighbors acquiring a dozen of them because of concerns about their range and required time to charge. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)
• South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s fight against attempts to unionize the state could affect the state’s growing electric vehicle and battery manufacturing industry. (Associated Press)
• Federal funding could drive construction of new fast chargers in a North Carolina community where they’ve largely been absent. (Wilmington StarNews)

OIL & GAS: An energy analyst downplays the long-term effects of the Biden administration’s pause on exporting liquified natural gas from the Gulf Coast, but acknowledges it will delay the development of at least three major LNG export facilities. (KRIV)

BIOMASS: A credit rating agency downgrades Enviva’s default and unsecured debt ratings after the biomass company missed a payment, highlighting the company’s growing risk of bankruptcy and raising questions about its facilities across the Southeast. (Coastal Review)

EMISSIONS: Residents of a Virginia county are worried development of a private landfill on a former coal prep plant will lead to harmful emissions, odors and noise. (Cardinal News)

EFFICIENCY: A $1.1 million round of federal funding will go to help small businesses in Kentucky install solar arrays and upgrade their HVAC systems to be more energy efficient. (WEKU)

CLIMATE: A Florida farmworker is among those providing public feedback to a federal agency about a proposed rule to require companies to protect workers against heat exposure. (Grist)

COMMENTARY: Internet service providers are exploiting a Virginia broadband program by backing legislation to shift responsibility to small electric cooperatives to replace or prepare utility poles for new connections, writes a mayor. (Cardinal News)