Volkswagen unionization vote a big step toward organizing the Southeast

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Workers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant that makes electric vehicles overwhelmingly vote to unionize, handing the United Auto Workers a major breakthrough in its push to organize Southeast auto factories. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ALSO:

• President Biden lauds the United Auto Workers for its Tennessee victory and criticizes six Republican governors for trying to ​“undermine the vote.” (Chattanooga Times Free Press, subscription)
• Electric vehicle maker Rivian assures Georgia officials it will secure the site of its planned $5 billion EV factory and continue to prepare for construction despite a pause in the project. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
• Hyundai announces a deal to power its Georgia auto factory with solar energy through a power purchase agreement with a 210 MW solar plant in Texas. (Korea Economic Daily)

GRID:

• Georgia’s approval of the construction of more natural gas-fired power plants to meet soaring energy demands of data centers is causing concern among the tech companies operating those data centers, many of which have aggressive clean energy goals. (Canary Media)
• Kentucky Power announces the completion of transmission improvements to the grid around a Kentucky city that include the replacement of an aging transformer. (Hazard Herald)
• The University of Alabama signs an agreement with a city council to jointly fund a project to move power lines underground. (The Crimson White)
• Alabama Power demolishes an aging Alabama power plant. (WVTM)

PIPELINES: A major CO2 pipeline leak this month in Louisiana that took more than two hours to fix should raise ​“alarm bells” about the country’s readiness to expand the carbon capture industry, advocates say. (Guardian)

SOLAR: An Arkansas climate group announces it will use $100,000 in federal funding to add solar panels at a resource center. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

OIL & GAS:

• Emails reveal how Louisiana State University offered oil companies the opportunity to influence and participate in faculty research projects in return for funding. (The Lens/​Guardian)
• The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida partners with a land conservation group to develop a multi-million-dollar agreement with a family that owns mineral rights beneath Big Cypress National Preserve to phase out oil drilling. (Inside Climate News)

GEOTHERMAL: Geothermal energy is on the rise in Texas due to rare consensus between the oil and gas industry and environmentalists in support of 2023 state legislation that paved the way for a new wave of startups. (The Hill)

WIND: A U.S.-built vessel that meets Jones Act requirements takes to the water ahead of Dominion Energy’s construction of an offshore wind farm near Virginia. (Canary Media)

RENEWABLE GAS: A BP subsidiary begins construction of a landfill-to-gas project in Virginia. (Roanoke Times)

EMISSIONS: The U.S. EPA’s proposal to clamp down on cancer-causing emissions from industrial plants prompts skepticism from the plastics industry but hope from residents in Louisiana’s ​“Cancer Alley.” (NOLA.com)

CLIMATE:

• Meteorologists forecast a ​“hyperactive” Atlantic hurricane season that could see as many as 24 named storms, up from the long-term annual average of 14. (Axios)
• A team from George Mason University leverages its expertise to help community leaders and local officials in southern Virginia develop climate action plans. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COMMENTARY:

• The announcement of a planned Virginia battery plant is part of a larger story of how the Biden administration used federal legislation to reshore manufacturing and invest in new storage and electric vehicle technology, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)
• Solar and batteries are increasingly boosting Georgia’s power grid, but the construction of more natural gas plants will improve reliability and reduce emissions from other fossil fuels, writes a state regulator. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)