How Texas’ unwritten ​“one-mile rule” protects polluters

EMISSIONS: Texas oil companies dodge pollution complaints by using the state’s informal ​“one-mile rule” to dismiss groups and citizens who live farther than one mile from facilities being challenged, even as state officials deny that such a rule exists. (Inside Climate News)

ALSO: A West Virginia agency pushes back against the U.S. EPA’s proposal to strengthen carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants despite the state’s high rates of asthma and lung cancer. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Vietnamese electric vehicle maker breaks ground on a $4 billion factory in North Carolina. (Associated Press)

COAL ASH: Duke Energy begins moving coal ash at a North Carolina power plant from unlined basins to a landfill, while contemplating whether to eventually transition the coal plant to nuclear, ​“hydrogen-capable” natural gas, battery storage, solar or a combination of those. (Winston-Salem Journal)

SOLAR: Two FirstEnergy subsidiaries in West Virginia tell state officials they plan to build five solar facilities on coal ash disposal sites. (Inter-Mountain)

OIL & GAS:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority starts up three natural gas-fired generators totaling 750 MW at the site of a former coal plant in Alabama to meet soaring summertime power demand. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Crude oil inventory at Oklahoma’s Cushing storage hub falls by 5.5 million barrels, setting the stage for what analysts believe will be a price increase. (Reuters)

PIPELINES: The fate of the Mountain Valley Pipeline remains uncertain amid lingering court cases, even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed construction to resume. (Mountain State Spotlight)

BIOMASS:
• An energy company eyes a Louisiana town for a $1.8 billion ​“green” methanol plant that would use wood fiber from local timber supplies at a former paper mill. (The Advocate)
• An engineering change delays a company’s plans to build a Mississippi plant to make jet fuel from woody biomass from the waste from the paper and lumber industries. (Magnolia State Live)

NUCLEAR: Arkansas’ nuclear power plant turns 50 years old, and its operator says it should continue to run until 2050. (Arkansas Business)

GRID:
• A Louisiana city is on the verge of a citywide power outage after a fire damaged an electrical substation. (KTBS)
• An energy company announces the construction of a Texas solar plant as part of a grid-strengthening project on the Texas-New Mexico border and the eventual retirement of a coal plant. (Eastern New Mexico News)

OVERSIGHT: A Florida municipal utility’s 2009 contract to build a biomass facility led to a chain reaction that eventually resulted in debt and the passage of a state law to shift oversight from city officials to a governor-appointed board. (WUFT)

CLIMATE:
• A southwestern Virginia county’s recovery from two 2021 flash floods has been spotty since a federal agency denied aid to residents. (Washington Post)
• Nashville, Tennessee, tests a special coating on paving projects to gauge its effectiveness at reducing street temperatures. (WKRN)

ACTIVISM: A West Virginia activist uses a drone to document environmental violations at strip-mining sites in hopes of shutting down the coal industry. (Guardian)

COMMENTARY:
• Louisiana regulators should closely scrutinize a utility’s plan to build costly carbon capture and sequestration at its coal plant, writes a Sierra Club organizer. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• A $50 million Florida program to build seawalls on private property could damage the state’s beaches and related tourism, writes a policy analyst at a beach advocacy group. (Miami Herald)