Puerto Rico residents wait for U.S. response to coal ash contamination

COAL ASH: Residents of Puerto Rico feel impatient for meaningful action to clean up toxic and radioactive coal ash spread across the island after a Virginia-based power company sold it as a cheap material for road construction. (Energy News Network/​Rural News Network)

ALSO:

• The Tennessee Valley Authority releases a study suggesting the utility might build a 100 MW solar farm on a turf-covered coal ash area at a coal-fired power plant in Kentucky. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Alabama residents and officials argue over the U.S. EPA’s proposed denial of the state’s plan to allow Alabama Power to continue storing coal ash in unlined ponds near waterways. (Inside Climate News)

SOLAR: A Virginia county delays approval of a 50 MW solar farm until it changes the details of its plans. (Winchester Star)

EFFICIENCY: Jacksonville, Florida, officials accuse a state energy efficiency program of predatory lending because homeowners who choose to pay for upgrades through an assessment on their property tax bills risk losing their homes. (Florida Times-Union)

CLIMATE:

• A report finds that reforms enacted by Florida lawmakers are driving down insurance litigation rates, but the state’s huge insurance costs are likely to grow because of rising inflation rates, reinsurance costs and the effects of climate change. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• Catastrophe models developed when Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 marked the beginning of macro shifts in the insurance industry now resulting in soaring premiums and company withdrawals in places subject to climate-driven extreme weather. (Grist)

HYDROGEN: Florida Power & Light begins operations today at a ​“green hydrogen” plant even as opponents warn that scaling up the approach will be wasteful and ineffective. (Canary Media)

POLITICS:

• North Carolina lawmakers will vote today on five bills vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, including measures to redefine ​“renewable energy” as ​“clean energy” to facilitate nuclear expansion and an omnibus loosening environmental regulations. (WRAL)
• Virginia advocates and residents fret as the governor moves to withdraw the state from a regional carbon market that funds energy efficiency and flood resiliency programs. (Bay Journal)

COAL: Researchers investigate a grass species that draws carbon from the atmosphere to feed microorganisms in the soil, which in turn might revive poor soil near coal mines. (Times West Virginian)

GRID:

• Texas grid officials will monitor Saturday’s solar eclipse to ensure a dip in solar power won’t cause outages. (KTRK)
• A Virginia county board sets public hearings to consider rezonings for four data centers, which critics oppose over their energy use and potential role in continued consumption of fossil fuels. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
• A Virginia county delays a vote on rezoning for a data center, in part because of concerns over its energy usage and questions about where that power would originate. (Culpeper Star-Exponent)

UTILITIES: More than a fifth of payments from a new Richmond, Virginia, city program that provides direct cash assistance to residents in need has gone toward utility bills. (Axios)

COMMENTARY:

• Texas’ summer grid challenges revealed the consistent reliability of renewables as well as natural gas plants’ vulnerability in terms of failures, efficiency and delivery, writes a climate activist. (Austin American-Statesman)
• Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $500 million commitment to expand a campaign to close coal plants could negatively affect Appalachian communities that still rely on the fossil fuel as an economic driver, writes a columnist. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)