Study: Gulf Coast LNG projects receive outsized subsidies

OIL & GAS: A new Sierra Club report of 15 liquified natural gas projects in Texas and Louisiana finds they received about $4 million in tax breaks for every permanent post-construction job promised by developers, effectively denying local governments revenue for services and infrastructure. (Inside Climate News)

WIND: Rising local resistance to a 15,000-acre Oklahoma wind farm has rippled into the state legislature, where lawmakers are considering bills to give local governments more power to restrict wind energy projects. (Oklahoma Voice)

UTILITIES:

• North Carolina regulators consider Duke Energy’s proposal to allow large users to access aggregated energy data for buildings with multiple tenants, allowing them to gauge clean energy use at airports and other large facilities. (Energy News Network)
• Dominion Energy’s chief operating officer plans to retire this summer after a nearly four-decade career. (Virginia Business)

SOLAR:

• Five new or expanded solar factories in Alabama, Florida, Ohio and Texas contributed to add 9.3 GW of new U.S. solar module manufacturing capacity in the third quarter. (Solar Industry)
• A company secures $300 million in financing for a 105 MW solar farm with a 160 MWh battery storage facility in Arkansas. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, news release)
• A Virginia county board prepares to consider a proposed solar farm and battery storage facility on 800 acres. (Farmville Herald)

STORAGE: Georgia regulators approve Georgia Power’s application to build 500 MW of battery storage at four sites, including two facilities that will be co-located with solar farms near air force bases. (Capitol Beat News Service)

PIPELINES: The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s final cost looks to be about $9.6 billion, far more than the $3.5 billion that was projected when construction began. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

NUCLEAR: A company begins hiring for its planned multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility in Tennessee, although it’s not intended to become operational until the 2030s. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Tennessee has seen a 60% increase in electric vehicle chargers from a year ago, though it still lags other Southeast states for charger installation. (WPLN)
• A Tennessee university receives a $4.8 million federal grant to develop a ​“mobile preprocessing hub” to recycle electric vehicle batteries. (Utility Dive)

GRID: Texas’ grid operator warns a ​“greater-than-average” chance of extreme cold weather could lead to outages this winter, but 10 GW of new power generation means the grid is better prepared than in the past. (Texas Tribune)

COMMENTARY:

• South Carolina leaders should look into restarting the failed construction of two nuclear reactors, but only if it can be funded by data centers driving up power demand and not residential customers who’ve already sunk money into the project, writes an editorial board. (Post and Courier)
• Virginia is stuck in a solar conundrum in which state lawmakers who most enthusiastically back the development of solar farms represent districts that tend to have the fewest such projects, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)