S.C. lawmakers resurrect bill to loosen energy regulation for gas plant

OIL & GAS: South Carolina lawmakers are again considering sweeping energy legislation centered on loosening regulations for a planned gas-fired power plant, which critics say will increase emissions and electricity bills. (The State)

PIPELINES: Dominion Energy suspends new gas customer hookups in the greater Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups challenging a planned 15-mile pipeline. (WPDE)

EMISSIONS: A dozen Texas counties exceed federal soot standards, but state regulators want to exclude all but four of them from taking action to improve air quality because of bad air monitoring data or ​“exceptional events” such as wildfires or dust storms. (Texas Tribune)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The U.S. EPA awards $12.7 million to two Louisiana parishes to replace 45 diesel school buses with electric buses. (The Advocate)

NUCLEAR: Virginia officials approve a $100,00 grant to study the feasibility of building a nuclear microreactor in the state’s coal-producing region. (Cardinal News)

WORKFORCE: Florida Power & Light partners with the United Way on a pre-apprenticeship program to train lineworkers. (Miami’s Community Newspapers)

CLIMATE: Researchers say Houston’s prolonged power outages after Hurricane Beryl show how the state is unprepared for ​“compound disasters,” in which multiple extreme weather events stack up to cause even more damage. (Inside Climate News)

COMMENTARY: Virginia lawmakers are considering how to override local regulation of solar farms to attain clean energy goals that the state’s proliferation of data centers has made largely unattainable, writes an editorial board. (Smithfield Times)