Half a million Houstonians won’t have power until next week

HURRICANE BERYL: CenterPoint Energy says it has restored power to more than one million Houston residents but acknowledges half a million others likely won’t have electricity until next week, angering residents and leading the state’s lieutenant governor to declare the situation is ​“not acceptable.” (Associated Press)

ALSO:

• The significant damage Hurricane Beryl dealt to Houston as a mere category 1 storm shows how the energy-centric city is still vulnerable to storms increasingly exacerbated by climate change. (Inside Climate News)
• After technical issues disabled a utility’s power outage tracker, a Texas tech worker used Whataburger’s restaurant app to figure out where power was still on and where it had been restored. (Washington Post)
• Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick identifies a coastal community where residents may not see power restored for another two weeks as the ​“hardest hit” county in the state. (Texas Tribune)

CLIMATE:

• Critics assail a new Louisiana law they say gives insurers more leeway to cancel policies, deny homeowners coverage and raise rates and deductibles in response to climate change. (Floodlight)
• Houston residents scramble to file insurance claims after Hurricane Beryl. (Houston Landing)
• A Tennessee meteorologist says the region could be in for the ​“heat wave of the decade” in coming days. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

SOLAR: A veterans group plans to install solar panels and battery backup at a church as the first step toward a larger community solar initiative in Charleston, West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

OIL & GAS:

• Congressional Democrats consider evidence from a federal investigation of ExxonMobil’s merger with Permian shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources and other class action lawsuits to determine whether companies colluded to push up oil prices. (DeSmog)
• Dominion Energy plans to build a $500 million storage facility for 2 billion cubic feet of liquified natural gas next to a Virginia power plant. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A North Carolina-based electric vehicle charging company attracts Honda, Hyundai, GM, Toyota and five other auto manufacturers to sign on to its plan to build 30,000 charging stations across the U.S. (WTVD)
• Volvo receives a $208 million federal grant to upgrade Virginia and Pennsylvania factories that make electric trucks. (Cardinal News)

NUCLEAR: The U.S. Energy Department signs a deal with Tennessee to pay out $42 million due to the release of radioactive waste and other contaminants involved in research for the first atomic bomb. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

POLITICS:

• Records reveal a Congress member pushed to earmark taxpayer money for a pipeline extension from Maryland into Virginia that would benefit two companies that donated to her campaign. (Raw Story, Politico)
• A U.S. House committee advances an appropriations bill that would block a new rule to limit coal miners’ exposure to silica dust, a major contributor to a new wave of black lung cases. (States Newsroom)