Report: Virginia coal ash dump ​‘highly vulnerable’ to storms, rising sea levels

COAL ASH: More than 2 million tons of ash buried on the banks of the Elizabeth River in Virginia are ​“highly vulnerable” to Atlantic storms and rising sea levels, according to a new report. (The Virginian-Pilot)

RENEWABLES:
• Amazon is to begin receiving the first electricity from roughly 930 MW of new renewable energy agreements this month, including 80 MW from a solar farm in eastern Virginia. (Climatewire)
• In a new report, Greenpeace lauds cloud computing companies for sourcing a growing amount of power for their data centers in Virginia and elsewhere with renewables. (Greenpeace)

WIND: A new study spotlights almost $4 billion in benefits for Louisiana and Mississippi of the proposed Southern Cross transmission line to import wind power from East Texas. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)

COAL: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin says Donald Trump assured him the President-elect will fight to secure a ​“permanent health care solution” for retired miners. (The Hill)

SOLAR:
• Incentives in South Carolina draw national installers seeking to serve the state, bucking a national trend of declining sales growth. (Greentech Media)
• Commissioners in Pitt County, South North Carolina approve a conditional use permit for a solar farm designed to sell electricity to North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power. (WCTI12.com)

PIPELINES:
• Transco urges federal regulators to approve a new interstate natural gas pipeline through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. (NGI’s Shale Daily)
• Activists in north Florida step up efforts to reroute or stop the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. (News4Jax.com)
• Kinder Morgan says it is making ​“significant” progress cleaning up a 2014 fuel spill that’s still polluting the Savannah River in Georgia. (Savannah Morning News)

OIL: The Dept. of Energy is set to sell some of its strategic petroleum reserves in Louisiana and Texas to help finance its upkeep of the storage complex. (OilPrice.com)

CLIMATE: About 100 protesters in Louisville march outside federal buildings calling on Kentucky’s U.S. senators to reject President-elect Trump’s indifference to climate change. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

POLLUTION: South Carolina’s major power plants and heavy industries reduced their CO2 emissions 7% in 2015 largely due to natural gas replacing coal. (The Post and Courier)

NATURAL GAS: The developer of a proposed private gas-fired power plant in south central Virginia says it will make information available but will hold no public hearing. (GoDanRiver.com)

COMMENTARY:
• Just how does a 20 MW solar farm in Morgans Corner, North Carolina help meet the U.S. Navy’s demand for power at its base in Norfolk, Virginia? (Bacon’s Rebellion)
• The co-founder of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast defends President Obama’s decision to deny seismic testing there while a leader of a veterans group protests it. (Greenville Online, Palmetto Business Daily)