How Texas became America’s renewables leader

Editor’s note: Southeast Energy News is taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be back Nov. 27.

CLEAN ENERGY: Long known as the oil capital of the U.S., Texas has become the top producer of renewable energy in the U.S., ranking as the top wind power generator and second only to California for solar. (Business Insider)

ALSO: Amazon announces plans to develop a 100 MW solar farm and two wind farms in Oklahoma, collectively totaling 618 MW. (KOSU)

CLIMATE:

• New Orleans is one of America’s most climate-vulnerable and poorest cities, yet low-income residents face numerous obstacles that include limited public transit, a lack of solar and electric vehicle tax incentives, and energy bills rising at their fastest rate in two decades. (Guardian)
• Tennessee’s military department requests $5 million to create new flood models for every county and develop early warning systems for storms like floods and tornadoes. (WPLN)

SOLAR: A wave of door-to-door solar ​“sales bros” emanating partly from Florida, with little actual knowledge of the technology and a tendency to lie to close sales, could threaten consumer confidence in the clean energy transition. (Time)

• PIPELINES: Federal officials investigate an undersea pipeline rupture off Louisiana that may have leaked more than 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (USA Today, WVUE)

OIL & GAS:

• A Permian Basin-based group of energy companies funds the expansion of a program that trains high-school students in Texas and New Mexico to work in the oil fields. (Texas Tribune)
• Environmentalists and residents voice concerns about Dominion Energy’s plan to build a new natural gas-fired power plant in Virginia. (WRIC)
• West Virginia residents affected by a multi-day natural gas outage change their Thanksgiving plans after running into problems restarting their appliances. (WSAZ, Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Officials say a propane leak is the likely cause of an explosion that damaged a home in Tennessee. (WSMV)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• North Carolina-based Mack Trucks brings on two partners to develop charging infrastructure for its growing fleet of commercial electric vehicles. (Recycling Today)
• The county around Austin leads Texas in the adoption of electric vehicles, trailing California’s EV ownership rate by a single percentage point. (KUT)

CARBON CAPTURE: Louisiana regulators discuss a large planned carbon-capture facility that aims to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere using chemical reactions. (KPLC)

GRID:

• A Florida city receives a $23 million federal grant to upgrade its power grid. (WPTV)
• A Florida city collects public feedback on its plan to rework an area street to move power lines and infrastructure underground. (Spectrum News)

WIND: A lackluster August auction of wind energy leases in the Gulf of Mexico has prompted some companies to ease off their plans to enter the market. (Greater Baton Rouge Business Report)

STORAGE: A Canadian lithium company announces a 96.1% recovery rate over two months at its Arkansas demonstration plant. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

COMMENTARY:

• Florida’s elected leaders should allow localities to plan and fund regional efforts to combat climate change instead of blocking them through legislation and vetoes, writes a climate activist. (Invading Sea)
• Managing the explosive growth of Virginia’s data centers will require innovative thinking from utilities and the regional grid operator, and should push them toward clean energy, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)