Long-troubled Mountain Valley Pipeline is finally complete

PIPELINES: A Mountain Valley Pipeline official tells federal regulators that, after six years of delays and cost overruns, the project finally is ​“mechanically complete” and requests authorization to begin transporting natural gas this week. (Roanoke Times)

ALSO:

• Federal regulators ask for public input on a 122-mile pipeline across Tennessee to the site of a planned Tennessee Valley Authority natural gas-fired power plant. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Environmentalists criticize the draft environmental impact report on the planned Tennessee pipeline, saying it ignores climate change. (Herald-Citizen, subscription)

OIL & GAS:

• A new study finds people of color are underrepresented in the fossil fuel and chemical manufacturing industries, even as petrochemical plant emissions disproportionately affect their communities. (Floodlight)
• Saltwater erupts from a growing number of old oil and gas wells in the arid Permian Basin, irking landowners and baffling investigators who aren’t sure what’s causing the problem. (Inside Climate News)
• A construction and engineering firm announces plans to lay off 4,430 workers in Texas after filing for bankruptcy due to ​“staggering costs” company officials say it absorbed helping build a gas liquefaction plant. (Houston Chronicle)

SOLAR:

• A North Carolina county board considers an economic incentives package including a $3.5 million grant to attract a company that wants to build a $159 million factory to make solar components. (WRAL)
• A Kentucky farm secures a grant to build a solar array and electric vehicle charger. (WDRB)

WIND: San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility expands an agreement to increase the amount of power it draws from a regional wind farm from 77 MW to 161 MW. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID: The head of San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility expects the city to break its demand record this summer by 100 MW, and predicts Texas as a whole will top last year’s record of 85,500 MW of peak demand. (Houston Chronicle)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Environmental groups criticize Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for his announcement that he’ll unilaterally delink the state from California’s vehicle emissions standards, which require all new car sales to be electric by 2035. (WRIC)

BIOGAS: North Carolina residents push back against the state’s industrial hog farms, which now market themselves as a source of renewable natural gas. (Sierra)

CLIMATE: Researchers say extreme weather led to 94% of Virginia’s 88 major power outages over the last two years, and 80% of the nation’s major power outages from 2000 to 2023. (Axios)

TRANSITION: A Virginia county board votes to break off negotiations with a company that wants to build a large landfill on the site of a former coal prep plant. (Cardinal News)

OVERSIGHT: An outgoing member of a Virginia’s citizen air board calls on her successor to prioritize environmental justice. (Virginia Mercury)

COMMENTARY: Texas should assume regulation of carbon capture projects to alleviate the stalled queue of permit requests from federal officials, writes the state director for a conservative group. (My RGV)