How a ​“sustainable” company failed Kentucky coal towns

TRANSITION: A company that promoted indoor greenhouses to replace Kentucky’s dwindling coal industry attracted widespread acclaim and coverage but fell short of its promises to deliver high-quality produce and rural employment. (Grist/​Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting)

ALSO: A western Virginia town adds a methane conversion plant and increasingly focuses on green manufacturing as it seeks to reinvent itself as a sustainable, solar-friendly locality. (Cardinal News)

SOLAR:

• A Georgia naturalist advocates to block a company from building a solar farm on a 4,700-acre site next to a wildlife management area. (Macon Telegraph)
• A Virginia town adopts an ordinance that would ensure it receives revenue from solar farms, even though it doesn’t have any solar projects yet. (Farmville Herald)
• Two companies agree to buy the entirety of the power produced by a 270 MW solar farm under development in Texas. (Renewables Now)
• Florida Power & Light purchases a 40,000-acre Florida ranch, which experts say could become home to the state’s largest solar farm. (Orlando Sentinel)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Electric vehicle maker Canoo begins operations at its new Oklahoma factory by producing one vehicle per day. (Journal Record)
• As some automakers pull back on the electric vehicle transition amid low demand, Hyundai barrels forward with a new plant in South Korea and its $5.44 billion vehicle and battery factory under construction in Georgia. (The Street)
• As Hyundai and its suppliers develop factories in Georgia, a regional workforce study predicts a Savannah-area worker shortage for new industrial jobs by 2025. (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
• Georgia uses workarounds to offer companies like Rivian economic incentives despite a constitutional prohibition on government entities providing a good, service or property without an equitable return. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)

WIND: A recently discovered whale species is at the center of a growing debate over a federal agency’s plan to designate 28,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico as critical habitat and potentially bar oil and gas drilling there. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS:

• Environmentalists fight a company’s plan to build a Louisiana plant to process sugarcane into jet fuel. (WGNO)
• West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declares a state of emergency and lawsuits begin to fly as the west side of Charleston continues to deal with a multi-day gas outage. (West Virginia Watch)

CARBON CAPTURE: A city in southwestern Virginia’s coal-producing region receives a $4.29 million federal grant to study development of a carbon dioxide storage hub. (Cardinal News)

GRID: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will tour a Louisiana microgrid project that installs solar and battery storage in underserved neighborhoods. (Louisiana Illuminator)

UTILITIES: Dominion Energy reaches a tentative settlement with ratepayer, environmental and other groups to keep its base rates stable for the next two years while increasing its allowable profit. (Virginia Mercury)

POLITICS: Louisiana’s Republican governor-elect denounces his predecessor’s carbon action plan and similar policies as ​“extremely destructive at this time, on the economy and certainly on the backs of working people.” (Louisiana Radio Network)

COMMENTARY: A pastor calls for better control and regulation of coal dust that affects the health of nearby communities near export terminals in coastal Virginia. (Virginian-Pilot)