Displaced Kentucky families face winter without secure housing

CLIMATE: Eastern Kentucky families face the prospect of a winter without stable housing after their homes were destroyed in July flooding. (Ohio Valley ReSource, BBC)

ALSO: Pandemic complications and related labor shortages have left some North Carolina residents without permanent housing nearly six years after they were displaced by Hurricane Matthew. (Associated Press)

WIND: Virginia regulators extend the response period for their reconsideration of a performance guarantee on Dominion Energy’s proposed offshore wind project, which the utility says might scuttle the entire project. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COAL:
• Federal inspectors recommend the Tennessee Valley Authority address coal dust, flue gas and staffing at a Tennessee coal-fired power plant if the utility wants to continue operating the plant until its scheduled retirement next year. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Virginia scientists study ways to extract rare earth elements from tailings and acid mine drainage left over from coal mining operations. (Cardinal News)

NUCLEAR:
• Federal regulators grant a 40-year license extension for a South Carolina factory that’s one of only three facilities in the country that makes fuel for nuclear plants. (Associated Press)
• Federal regulators announce extra inspections of a Louisiana nuclear power plant after learning an offsite radiation monitor was miscalibrated for more than a decade. (Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• Arkansas professors announce a tool for state poultry growers to determine whether producing solar power makes sense for their farms. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A solar developer considers commercial-scale solar development on abandoned mine land at four Virginia sites. (Coalfield Progress, subscription)
• A Virginia county considers a draft ordinance to guide large-scale solar energy development. (Martinsville Bulletin)
• A solar-powered aerospace titanium manufacturing facility will locate in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail, subscription)

POLITICS: Progressive Democrats look to derail plans to attach permitting reform legislation for energy projects such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline to a stopgap spending bill. (E&E News)

COAL ASH: North Carolina residents see elevated thyroid cancer rates in a community where coal ash is stored at a Duke Energy coal and natural gas plant. (Daily Tar Heel)

GRID: Texas regulators tell state lawmakers grid reforms are working to ensure reliability, but they’re already starting to hear blowback from constituents about the costs of new winterization rules. (KTBC)

UTILITIES: A bankruptcy judge allows Texas’ largest power cooperative to begin soliciting votes on a bankruptcy restructuring proposal that includes a $1.4 billion payment to end a dispute over price spikes stemming from last year’s winter storm. (Reuters)

EMISSIONS: A North Carolina health care system announces plans to cut more than a third of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by mid-century. (Winston-Salem Journal)

DATA CENTERS: Residents in Northern Virginia neighborhoods next to a growing number of data centers complain about the noise from constantly whirring fans needed to cool the centers. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY: Two environmental activists decry plans to ship crude oil by rail from Utah to Texas, adding as much carbon pollution to the region as a new refinery. (Beaumont Enterprise)