S.C. lawmakers gridlocked over energy regulation overhaul

OVERSIGHT: South Carolina state senators vote to turn an energy regulation bill that would smooth the way for a new power plant into a promise to deal with the issue after additional vetting this fall, but House lawmakers reject the revised legislation in favor of further negotiation. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

ALSO: Documents reveal a South Carolina lawyer who played a key role in writing legislation that led to a $9 billion nuclear boondoggle appears to have also authored parts of a new bill opponents say would weaken energy regulation to fast-track a new gas-fired power plant. (Post and Courier)

UTILITIES:

• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s quarterly meetings in Nashville this week attract activists criticizing its ongoing reliance on fossil fuels as the utility’s board takes action to change how it pays executives and communicates to the public. (WPLN)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority pledges to reduce its carbon emissions by encouraging more energy efficiency, building more renewables and retiring its last coal plants, but critics assail the utility for still planning to build new gas-fired power plants. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority makes changes to lower incentive and severance payouts for its CEO, who is currently America’s highest paid federal employee. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

EMISSIONS:

• Louisiana lawmakers pass a bill to prohibit data collected through some community air monitoring programs from being used in Clean Air Act-related regulatory actions, jeopardizing monitoring in communities historically overburdened by pollution. (Floodlight)
• Residents in Louisiana’s ​“Cancer Alley” assess their future as the U.S. EPA flip-flops on how to remedy environmental harms caused by systemic racism. (Inside Climate News)

GRID:

• Federal officials label part of a Virginia county with heavy data center development as a designated transmission corridor to force approval of power lines, frustrating many residents who oppose the projects. (Loudoun Times-Mirror)
• Dominion Energy’s quarterly earnings report reveals the utility plans to connect 15 new data centers totaling 933 MW this year. (Loudoun Times-Mirror)
• PJM documents show plans for a new 500 kV transmission line from coal plants in West Virginia to a substation, then to a cluster of Virginia data centers and beyond. (Winchester Star)

CLEAN ENERGY: The Port of Virginia’s CEO discusses its efforts to run fully on clean energy as it conducts a dredging project to accommodate larger ships and handle extra traffic following the collapse of a Baltimore bridge. (WVEC, Virginia Mercury)

SOLAR: Advocates push for the expansion of rooftop solar in Puerto Rico to replace aging power plants that local residents blame for pollution and negatively affecting their health. (Inside Climate News)

WIND: A judge considers arguments by conservative groups alleging Dominion Energy didn’t address potential impacts to the endangered North Atlantic right whale when planning its offshore wind farm near Virginia. (Virginia Mercury)

HYDROGEN: Louisiana lawmakers advance a bill to create a task force to study the state’s emerging hydrogen industry. (KALB)

POLITICS: U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia questions U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan about the agency’s proposed new rule to close coal-fired power plants and limit the construction of new gas-fired plants. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)