Trump alum advocates for a smoother solar path in Virginia

SOLAR: A former official in the Trump administration’s Interior Department co-founds a nonprofit to inform and smooth relations in rural Virginia communities experiencing a wave of solar energy development. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:
• A company closes financing for a planned 195 MW solar farm in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
• A Florida property owner installs solar arrays totaling 1.5 MW at four resorts. (PV Magazine)

OIL & GAS: Documents reveal how Chevron, ExxonMobil and other petrochemical companies formed a ​“sustainability council” to counter the grassroots activists who successfully fought construction of three large petrochemical factories in Louisiana’s ​“Cancer Alley.” (Floodlight/​Guardian)

STORAGE: Analysts project Texas’ utility-scale battery storage capacity will grow exponentially over the next decade to support the state’s fast-expanding solar and wind generation fleets. (S&P Global)

COAL: West Virginia residents worry about coal dust pollution from a company’s proposed 942-acre surface mine after regulators concede its permit wouldn’t require dust monitoring or account for its effects on surrounding communities. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An auto industry expert at a Tennessee electric vehicle battery innovation conference complains the Biden administration’s new EV tax credits aren’t consumer friendly. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

NUCLEAR: Westinghouse holds informal conversations with officials in West Virginia and Ohio about building small modular nuclear reactors at former coal plants. (Reuters)

HYDROGEN:
• A South Korean company signs a deal to support Florida’s pursuit of a hydrogen hub project with a hydrogen production plant set to break ground next month. (Korea Herald)
• A hydrogen company secures a deal to supply a Mississippi industrial park, port and airport. (Mississippi Business Journal)

BIOGAS: A Tennessee city looks to resolve odor complaints about its landfill by hiring a company to turn 90% of its trash into a biofuel that can be sold or turned into natural gas. (WSMV)

CLEAN ENERGY: Atlanta’s new chief sustainability officer discusses the Georgia city’s plan to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035. (WABE)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A North Carolina county board approves a one-year moratorium on crypto-mining to allow it to draft standards and mitigation methods to regulate it. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

CLIMATE:
• Louisiana’s coastal restoration program faces a looming funding crisis, with money from a 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill settlement set to run out in 2032. (WVUE)
• Officials have devoted billions of dollars to restore the Everglades as sea-level rise, water pollution and other effects of climate change threaten to compound damage from occupation, settlement and draining of the area. (Miami Herald)

POLITICS:
• Florida lawmakers pass a bill to replace city oversight of Gainesville’s municipal utility with a state board appointed by the governor. (Gainesville Sun)
• Texas lawmakers advance legislation to replace a corporate tax break program with incentives for projects to firm up security, supply chain and power grid reliability — but not for renewable energy. (Community Impact)

COMMENTARY:
• A company’s plan to expand 49 miles of a natural gas pipeline in Virginia threatens wetlands and the drinking water of Indigenous and Black communities even though state law mandates a shift from gas-powered electricity, writes a member of a local civic league. (Daily Press)
• Carbon capture technology represents just the latest attempt by fossil fuel companies to greenwash their industry in an attempt to look environmentally friendly, writes a retired general and climate activist. (The Advocate)
• Florida must go beyond just building sea walls and address emissions as a root cause of climate change and rising seas, writes a climate consultant. (Tampa Bay Times)