How power companies co-opt civil rights leaders in the South

UTILITIES: An investigation finds power companies have targeted more than two dozen Black civil rights leaders in the Southeast to court, and has gotten several to help divert attention from utility power struggles and environmental harms related to their fossil fuel plants. (Capital B/​Floodlight)

WIND: A Louisiana commission that manages the Gulf of Mexico’s largest oil and gas port approves an agreement to erect the state’s first commercial-scale wind turbine to power an emergency operations center and other amenities. (NOLA.com)

EMISSIONS: A single conservation group remains on a lawsuit to reverse Virginia’s withdrawal from a regional carbon market after a judge rules that three others lack standing to sue. (Roanoke Times)

OIL & GAS:

• Texas regulators have suspended nearly two dozen permits allowing wastewater injection because of their likely connection to the growing severity of earthquakes in West Texas. (Texas Tribune)
• A Texas city settles with an oil company to allow it to drill nine wastewater disposal wells near an underground reservoir of drinking water despite a yearlong battle to stop it. (Texas Tribune)
• Texas officials are investigating an explosion at a Fort Worth hotel as likely related to natural gas, and not a terrorism incident as has been speculated on social media. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Associated Press)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A newly elected Democratic Virginia lawmaker files a bill to push the Republican governor to fill vacancies on a state environmental justice council after months of delay. (Virginia Mercury)

TRANSITION: Appalachian advocates plan a virtual summit to discuss how green manufacturing jobs could bolster the region’s economy and repurpose facilities shuttered by the fossil fuel industry. (Public News Service)

CLEAN ENERGY: An electronics company official discusses its plans for a $700 million investment in a West Virginia innovation center intended to develop new sectors in clean energy, technology and health care. (WV Metro News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• The U.S. EPA awards $172 million to 35 Southeastern school districts to purchase electric school buses, including a district in metro Atlanta region. (McDuffie Progress, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• North Carolina transportation officials identify 11 key places in the state that still lack electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (Wilmington Biz)
• Virginia’s U.S. senators announce $1.4 million for 38 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations in a metro Richmond county. (WRIC)
• A Vietnamese EV company building a North Carolina factory reveals plans to make a mid-sized electric pickup truck. (CNN)

CLIMATE:

• A winter storm with tornadoes knocks out power to hundreds of thousands of people in the South, and kills two people in Alabama, one in North Carolina and possibly another in Georgia. (NBC News, Washington Post)
• A Virginia work group reports local flood reduction efforts need more coordination and oversight from a single state entity instead of the multiple agencies currently involved. (WHRO)
• The city of Houston has yet to disburse $200 million in relief funds from Hurricane Harvey, which hit more than six years ago. (Texas Tribune)

GRID: Texas grid officials say they’re closely watching the onset of cold weather but expect the power grid to hold up. (KXAS)

BIOMASS:

• Mississippi State researchers receive funding to study how to convert leftover biomass from agricultural production into liquid biofuel additives. (WXXV)
• An investment firm acquires a 55 MW wood waste-fired power plant in Georgia. (Power Technology)

COMMENTARY: Virginia lawmakers could take steps to restrict “​the worst instrument of neighborly ear torture known to suburban life” by allowing localities to regulate gas-powered leaf blowers, writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)