Survey: Texas wind and solar workers face heat, racial pay disparities

CLEAN ENERGY: A survey of non-union construction and maintenance workers in Texas’ solar and wind industries finds many have been injured, nearly half of construction workers have gotten sick from working in the heat, and broad racial pay and benefit disparities. (Houston Chronicle)

‍

GRID:

• While hurricanes and wildfires prompted Florida and California to overhaul their power grids, Texas officials have responded to multiple disasters in recent years by allowing utilities to continue a costly pattern of destroy-and-rebuild. (Houston Chronicle)
• CenterPoint Energy officials tell Texas regulators they can’t cancel the lease for an $800 million fleet of large generators that went unused during response to Hurricane Beryl. (Utility Dive)

‍

WIND: Texas propels the wind industry to surpass coal-fired power generation in the U.S. for two months straight for the first time ever, even as wind has outproduced coal in Texas for four years running. (San Antonio Express-News)

‍

SOLAR:

• An Arkansas city races to acquire land for a solar project to meet a deadline to qualify for Entergy’s one-to-one net metering credit. (Hot Springs Sentinel-Record)
• A Texas farmer says demand for livestock to maintain vegetation around solar panels has provided “the greatest opportunity for the sheep industry in my lifetime.” (Canary Media)

‍

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Georgia voters love the thousands of jobs accompanying a wave of electric vehicle and battery plants but still have big doubts about electric vehicles themselves, with some suggesting the new plants could be converted to making gas-powered automobiles. (Politico)

‍

PIPELINES:

• Mountain Valley Pipeline officials still haven’t delivered a timeline for completing an investigation of an early May rupture during high-pressure water testing before the pipeline entered service. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• A judge rejects new pipeline safety standards adopted by the Biden administration after an industry group sues over their cost. (Reuters)
• Louisiana officials investigate the death of an oil and gas worker in an offshore pipeline explosion. (WVUE)

‍

OIL & GAS:

• Chevron operates its own news outlet in the Permian Basin, using a San Francisco public relations firm to provide “news” and positive spin in a region with a shrinking number of local outlets. (Floodlight)
• The U.S. oil and gas industry’s boom under President Biden illustrates how difficult it is for a president to stop or even slow oil production because of legal, political and market factors. (Washington Post)
• Virginia officials are concerned about the continued presence of 35 gasoline and diesel storage tanks that were decommissioned in 2018 and are now complicating efforts to redevelop 140 acres. (Cardinal News)

‍

BIOMASS: A company builds a Louisiana plant to convert a sugar cane byproduct called bagasse into fuel pellets that can be burned at biomass plants. (The Advocate)

‍

HYDROGEN: Officials with an Appalachia hydrogen hub planned for Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania say they’ll be more transparent about their plans now that federal funding has been awarded. (Allegheny Front)

‍

CLIMATE:

• Ernesto arrives way, way early as the season’s third hurricane, which experts say is an ominous sign of what’s to come as the climate continues to warm. (Grist)
• Texas lawmakers consider legislation to reform the insurance market after the state’s insurer-of-last-resort elects to raise rates for homeowners along the Gulf Coast. (Houston Chronicle)
• West Virginia residents still trying to recover from 2022 floods hope a $50,000 mitigation grant from the U.S. EPA will build resilience and reduce the intensity of flooding in the area. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

‍

UTILITIES: A Tennessee municipal utility buys power from the Tennessee Valley Authority and adds a premium to fund its operations, and while its rates rank just above the state average, they’re still well below the national average. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

‍