Virginia governor supports restoring rate reviews for Dominion

WIND: The Southeast’s largest wind farm is now fully operational, despite pushback from some North Carolina lawmakers. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe supports ending a two-year-old deal that shields Dominion Virginia Power from rate reviews. (Washington Post)

CLIMATE:
• A study warns flooding of Atlantic coast cities will become a weekly event by 2045 as sea levels rise. (Climate Central)
• Why a carbon tax is more complicated than it sounds. (Vox)

COAL:
• An anticipated rebound in the coal industry is unlikely to help Appalachian workers. (CNBC)
• Advocates in West Virginia say the state government has ​“declared war against West Virginia’s environmental protection regulations.” (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

COAL ASH:
• Virginia lawmakers advance a bill that would place tougher restrictions on coal ash impoundments. (Fauquier Times)
• A former North Carolina public health director at the heart of a recent coal ash controversy has found a new job in Missouri. (Raleigh News & Observer)

OIL AND GAS:
• Some Georgia lawmakers are pushing back on plans to impose tougher regulations on fracking; the sponsor of a drilling bill says he is incorporating suggestions from industry. (Stanley News & Press, Rome News-Tribune)
• Two workers are hospitalized and one remains unaccounted for after a natural gas pipeline explosion in Louisiana. (Associated Press)

GRID: A bill in the Kentucky legislature would make smart meters optional. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

EFFICIENCY: A Mississippi school district is using a public-private partnership use energy savings to pay for efficiency upgrades. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)

TRANSPORTATION: Two South Carolina school districts are switching over to buses that run on propane, which has lower emissions than diesel. (Post and Courier)

COMMENTARY:
• A Kentucky newspaper challenges the notion that Sen. Mitch McConnell is a friend of coal miners. (The Gleaner/​Lexington Herald-Leader)
• The ACLU says a recent lawsuit targeting Alabama coal ash activists is part of a ​“large and varied collection of injustices that need to be called out.”
• A Kentucky newspaper publisher says partisan divisions on climate change will be resolved by the free market. (Frankfort State Journal)
• ​“Tor those who care about the environment, now is the time to fight. What’s ahead is bleak.” (Florida Times-Union)