Louisiana LNG plant delays raise questions about their viability

OIL & GAS: Four of the 14 liquified natural gas export terminals either built or planned for Louisiana are facing delays, raising questions about whether too many players rushed to build and whether the market can accommodate them all. (NOLA.com)

ALSO:• A Chattanooga, Tennessee, gas utility becomes one of the first in the country to shift entirely to certified low-emission natural gas as part of its parent company’s pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)• A new study reveals the oil and gas industry frequently uses 28 federally regulated chemicals that have been exempted from oversight due to the so-called Halliburton Loophole. (Inside Climate News)

COAL:• The U.S. EPA moves to reject Alabama’s coal ash permitting plan because it doesn’t sufficiently protect people and waterways, potentially forcing utilities to excavate and remove millions of tons of wet coal ash slurry from unlined ponds. (AL.com, Associated Press)• Federal regulators approve the sale of a West Virginia coal-fired power plant to a company that plans to make graphite and use hydrogen produced in the process to fuel the plant. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Charleston Gazette-Mail)• Kentucky officials hold a public hearing on utilities’ plans to retire four coal-fired power plants and three natural gas units, and replace them with new natural gas and solar facilities. (WYMT)

SOLAR:• Electric vehicle maker Rivian signs on as the anchor customer for an 800 MW solar farm to be built atop a former Kentucky coal mine. (Canary Media)• A Virginia county’s record of denying solar farms conflicts with plans for at least six data centers that would require at least 1,000 MW of new power. (Piedmont Journalism Foundation/Fauquier Times)

CARBON CAPTURE: Louisiana residents urge state officials to block a chemical company from building wells and pipelines to inject 5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year beneath a beloved lake. (Louisiana Illuminator)

GRID:• Wind and solar companies warn the timeline and broad reach of a proposed rule to require grid resources to upgrade technology to avoid going offline could push renewables off the grid and raise the cost of future installations. (E&E News)• Officials in an Oklahoma city call on residents to conserve energy as excessive heat pushes its substations and the power grid to the brink. (KFOR)

UTILITIES: Texas regulators resist calls to place a moratorium on electrical disconnections because they say existing rules already prevent cutting off residential power during extreme weather. (KVUE)

CLIMATE:• Scientists say the severe marine heat wave that’s killing and bleaching coral may be worse around Florida than the rest of the Caribbean because of the shallow waters of the nearby Florida Bay. (Miami Herald)• Higher summer temperatures and the prospect of more storm-related power outages induced by climate change is pushing some Florida architects to return to “passive cooling” designs. (Miami Herald)• Texas workers brace for a new state law to invalidate existing local rules that are stricter than the state’s, including Austin and Dallas laws requiring construction companies to offer 10-minute water breaks every four hours. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey awards $1.2 million to build electric vehicle chargers. (WDEF)

NUCLEAR: An energy company announces it will open new offices in eastern Tennessee to conduct fusion research close to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Power Electronics News)

GEOTHERMAL: West Virginia officials are establishing a regulatory program for geothermal energy as drilling begins on the state’s first test well. (States Newsroom)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

Mason has worked as a journalist since 2001, covering Appalachian communities and the issues that affect them. He compiles the Southeast Energy News digest. Mason previously worked as a wildlife biologist before moving into journalism by freelancing at Coast Weekly in Monterey, California, before taking an internship in 2001 at High Country News. He wrote for the Enterprise Mountaineer in western North Carolina and the Roanoke Times in western Virginia before going freelance in 2012. His work has appeared in Southerly, Daily Yonder, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, WVPB’s Inside Appalachia and elsewhere. Mason was born and raised in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and now lives with his family and a small herd of goats in Floyd County, Virginia.