Rattled by wind farm, Arkansas county passes moratorium

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CLEAN ENERGY

• An Arkansas county board approves a five-year moratorium on commercial wind and solar projects after a 180 MW wind farm was announced. (Arkansas Times)

• Professionals in North Carolina’s burgeoning solar and battery industries express optimism about continued growth but also wariness after a Democratic analysis found the state could lose more than $1.3 billion in clean energy funding due to Trump’s spending freeze. (WRAL)

SOLAR

• Texas residents alarmed by a growing number of solar projects call on state lawmakers to pass legislation to more tightly regulate their development, despite advocates’ arguments in favor of the tax revenue, jobs and clean energy they bring. (Texas Tribune)

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin considers whether to sign a bill requiring utilities to accept more small-scale solar, wind or renewable gas projects that produce less than 1 MW. (Inside Climate News)

• A renewables company begins operations at a 100 MW solar farm in Mississippi. (PV Tech)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Florida sheriff warns a company’s plans to drill a wildcat oil rig could threaten a rural community dependent on a river and nearby bay for tourism. (Tallahassee Democrat)

• An Alabama official acknowledges the ignition of methane released from an expanding longwall coal mine ​“likely” caused an explosion that killed a neighboring resident. (Inside Climate News)

• A West Virginia county tells a federal appeals court that more than a dozen coal companies have threatened public health and created a nuisance by failing to clean up five piles of coal waste. (Courthouse News Service)

GRID

• An incident last summer in which 60 data centers in Virginia suddenly dropped off the grid and switched to on-site generators caused a surge of excess electricity and forced Dominion Energy and grid operator PJM to scale back output from power plants to avoid outages. (Reuters)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Duke Energy announces three new programs in Florida to reduce electric vehicle charging and fleet costs. (news release)

CARBON CAPTURE

• Three European companies announce plans for a direct air carbon capture facility in Texas that would be powered by a wind farm. (E&E News)

RENEWABLE GAS

• A fast-growing Alabama county revamps its waste management system to divert more to recycling and opens a waste-to-gas facility. (AL.com)

COMMENTARY

• Texas legislation to require the state’s grid operator to add coal and gas-fired generation at the same rate as renewables threatens grid stability because of the long lead time to develop and build gas-fired power plants, writes a columnist. (Houston Chronicle)

• Three Republican Virginia lawmakers are so irritated at rising Appalachian Power bills that they’re calling to replace the utility, which serves 530,000 customers in western Virginia, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• As more New England officials call for cuts to clean energy programs to rein in high energy bills, advocates say those investments will save customers money in the long run, Sarah Shemkus reports.

• Dan McCarthy charts the 28 states that got more power from renewables than coal last year, marking a huge decline from just 20 years ago.