Southeast EV factories loom over auto workers’ strike

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle and battery plants under construction in the largely non-unionized Southeast are important points of contention in the United Auto Workers’ strike against Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. (The Economist)

ALSO: Companies break ground on the Air Force’s first electric aircraft charging station at a base in Florida. (Dayton Daily News)

STORAGE: More than half of the planned, under construction, or installed and operational energy storage in the U.S. is located in Texas, which already has 16.4 GW of capacity. (PV Magazine)

SOLAR:

• A Virginia county planning commission votes against a proposed 102 MW solar farm along a river that had recently been given a scenic designation. (South Boston News & Record)

• A company withdraws plans for an Alabama solar farm after a county board voted down a proposed tax abatement for the project. (Lowndes Signal)

• Charlotte, North Carolina, considers a developer’s proposal to build two solar farms to power city buildings. (WFAE)

OIL & GAS:

• Climate and community activists organize against Dominion Energy’s plan to build a 1,000 MW natural gas-fired peaker plant in a Virginia community that’s long lived with a coal plant. (WTVR)

• A new report finds that Texas and Oklahoma led the U.S. in worker deaths in the oil and gas industry between 2014 and 2019. (Texas Tribune)

• An Arkansas company partners with Hyundai and a Texas firm to plan a facility to turn natural gas into high-grade diesel, naphtha and jet fuel. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

UTILITIES:

• New Orleans utilities are continuing to cut service for non-payment even after the city council asked them to suspend cutoffs until cooler fall weather arrives. (Louisiana Illuminator)

• Austin, Texas’ municipal utility prepares an update to its generation plan for the first time since it committed to transition entirely to renewable energy sources over the coming decade. (Austin Monitor)

• Virginia regulators approve Appalachian Power’s proposal to add 350 MW in solar and wind capacity through purchased power agreements and the acquisition of an Ohio wind farm. (S&P Global)

• Mississippi residents face rising electric bills as the Tennessee Valley Authority raises wholesale power prices for member utilities and a pandemic credit expires. (The Dispatch)

CLIMATE: A LEED-certified Florida building still flooded during extreme weather is one of more than 800 recently constructed structures certified as sustainable but still vulnerable to climate-related disasters. (Politico)

COMMENTARY:

• North Carolina should move to attract $4 billion or more in wind industry investment in manufacturing and its East Coast supply chain, regardless of whether wind turbines are ever built off its coast, writes the CEO of a conservative clean energy group. (Energy News Network)

• Virginia’s clean energy laws could be reversed if Republicans win majorities in state legislative races this fall, warns a Norfolk city council member. (Virginian Pilot)

• The transition to electric vehicles will require owners to adapt to new maintenance regimes and training for first responders to deal with battery fires, writes a news anchor. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)