Texas, Louisiana carbon capture plants awarded $1.2 billion

CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Energy Department awards Louisiana and Texas roughly $600 million each to develop direct air capture hubs intended to remove more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. (The Advocate, Associated Press)

STORAGE: A consultant projects a Kentucky county will gain 22,000 new residents attracted to jobs at two electric vehicle battery plants now under construction. (WKYU)

SOLAR:
• A solar company selects Louisiana to build a $1.1 billion facility that will make solar panels with all American-made components. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• An automotive supplier partners with a solar company and electric cooperative on a Texas solar project expected to be complete by year’s end. (Seguin Today)

WIND: An amateur inventor in San Antonio, Texas, claims he’s solved the problem of excess voltage generation to make small, consumer-scale wind turbines feasible. (Texas Monthly)

COAL ASH: Georgia environmentalists say the U.S. EPA’s rejection of Alabama’s coal-ash program because it allows coal ash to mingle with groundwater should lead to tighter scrutiny of Georgia Power’s proposed coal ash storage plans. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

COAL: Coal miners testify at West Virginia hearings in favor of strengthening federal silica dust exposure standards to reduce black lung cases. (West Virginia Watch)

PIPELINES: Protesters walk onto two Mountain Valley Pipeline construction sites in Virginia to disrupt work and further delay the embattled project. (WSLS)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle maker VinFast partners with a North Carolina community college to train many of the 7,500 workers the company seeks to hire at its pending factory. (Raleigh News & Observer)

GRID:
• Administrative problems and overgrown vegetation around power lines are causing a rural Mississippi municipal utility to repeatedly lose power, generating 70% of the complaints the Tennessee Valley Authority has received this year. (NBC News)
• Orlando, Florida’s municipal utility urges customers to moderate their air conditioning use after it sees record-breaking demand three times in the past week. (Orlando Sentinel)
• Tampa Electric reports new records for summer electricity use for two consecutive days. (WTVT)
• Federal officials investigate incidents at a Texas power plant involving an explosion that killed a contractor and workers who were exposed to hazardous airborne contaminants. (KBTX)

UTILITIES:
• Even after a different buyer purchased a West Virginia coal plant, FirstEnergy-controlled subsidiaries indicate they’ll seek to recover at least $350,000 for merely considering buying the plant. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Residents of a Florida community complain about an electric cooperative because of numerous momentary outages that have fried appliances and affected their businesses. (WFTX)

CLIMATE:
• The human toll from record-breaking heat in Florida is difficult to track because hospitals don’t release their counts of heat hospitalizations and deaths, and official records often are drawn narrowly. (Miami Herald)
• Forecasters increase the likelihood of an above-normal hurricane season because of warm Atlantic temperatures, projecting 14 to 21 named storms. (Texas Tribune, Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR: Oklahoma officials eye fusion experiments in California as they seek to grow the state’s own fusion programs and attract companies to grow the nuclear industry there. (Norman Transcript)