South Carolina lawmakers try to restart stalled energy bill

OVERSIGHT: South Carolina House lawmakers begin attaching energy language to every Senate bill on a committee’s agenda in an attempt to push the Senate to take up a bill that overhauls state energy regulation to fast-track a natural gas-fired power plant. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

PIPELINES:

• Despite carbon capture pipeline ruptures in Mississippi and Louisiana, fossil fuel companies lobby federal regulators to scale back safety rules so they can build projects more quickly. (The Lever)
• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials ask federal regulators to approve the start of operations next month. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• Federal officials award Louisiana $52.7 million to replace aging gas infrastructure, including $20 million for a city to replace 27.3 miles of lines. (Gonzales Weekly Citizen)

WIND:

• Federal officials announce a dozen more offshore wind lease auctions, including three in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOLA.com)
• Residents of a coastal Virginia neighborhood express outrage at Dominion Energy for clearing a swath of trees to make way for power lines that will bring power from its planned offshore wind farm to an electric substation. (WAVY)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Now a Tennessee Volkswagen factory has voted to unionize, contract bargaining begins, with experts predicting modest raises but bigger benefits. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• Port Houston receives $26.9 million in federal funding for new electric short-haul trucks, 15 portable chargers and the installation of a hydrogen fueling station. (Houston Chronicle)

CLEAN ENERGY: A company will receive more than $18 million in federal tax credits to expand a transformer factory in North Carolina. (WRAL)

UTILITIES: A Florida municipal utility that’s one of only 33 in the state to supply its own electricity to residents builds a new operations center to oversee the local grid. (Palm Beach Post)

OIL & GAS:

• Federal officials award Kentucky $25 million to plug and reclaim roughly 550 abandoned oil and gas wells. (Winchester Star)
• West Virginia regulatory staff say a gas utility acted appropriately last fall when a water line break triggered natural gas outages for hundreds of residents. (WV Metro News)

NUCLEAR:

• The Tennessee Valley Authority obtains a plurality of its energy from nuclear power, and now reports it’s the first utility in the U.S. to obtain federal approval for an early site permit to build a small modular nuclear reactor. (WSMV)
• A nuclear energy center at Texas A&M University that opened in 2021 researches the potential of building small modular nuclear reactors. (The Eagle)
• Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power consider developing new nuclear power facilities now that Virginia has passed a new law allowing them to recoup the cost of the work from state ratepayers. (WVTF)

GRID:

• A Virginia town council quizzes Dominion Energy officials about how the utility plans to power a data center and whether it will place lines underground. (WJLA)
• Residents of a Florida town are angry at Duke Energy for cutting trees around power lines instead of burying the lines. (WFLA)
• Florida Power & Light workers work to strengthen the power grid against hurricanes by replacing wooden power poles with steel or concrete. (WKRG)

EMISSIONS: A western Virginia metro area receives high marks for air quality, while San Antonio, Texas, ranks among the worst cities in the U.S. (Roanoke Times, San Antonio Report)