Virginia considers seed money for electric school bus transition

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Virginia lawmaker introduces a budget amendment to use $200,000 to establish a working group to identify sources of long-term state funding for the shift to electric school buses after federal funding runs out. (Energy News Network)

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ALSO:

• Georgia lawmakers advance a bill to block companies that accept state incentives from recognizing unions even as electric vehicle makers flood in and the United Auto Workers seeks to organize the new factories. (Associated Press)
• Mack Trucks announces it will invest $14.5 million into a Virginia factory to make way for “an emerging medium-duty electric truck line.” (Virginia Business)

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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The startling disparity between the booming oil and gas industry in Port Arthur, Texas, and the grinding poverty of its mostly Black and brown residents raises hard questions about environmental justice. (Inside Climate News)

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SOLAR:

• The founder of a Georgia pilot program says it’s cracked the code to enable low-income families to go solar in a state that’s been among those most hostile to rooftop solar installations. (Canary Media)
• Virginia lawmakers continue to debate whether localities should be able to ban solar development. (Virginia Mercury)
• West Virginia lawmakers consider three bills to create community solar programs and preserve net metering rates against utilities’ proposal to reduce them to wholesale levels. (WV Metro News)
• Kentucky regulators consider a proposed 125 MW solar farm that faces opposition from residents concerned about property values. (WKDZ)

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WIND:

• Dominion Energy begins construction of transmission lines in Virginia to bring power onshore from its offshore wind farm. (WTKR)
• Conservation groups warn that Louisiana’s idea of allowing wind turbines in shallow, wildlife-rich coastal areas could result in “lethal minefields” for birds. (NOLA.com)
• A judge’s ruling against a wind farm on Osage Nation land stands as an example of how tribal lawsuits will test the Biden administration’s clean energy policies. (E&E News)

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PIPELINES: A surge of muddy runoff that appears to be from a Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site into a normally clear spring leads 29 community and statewide organizations to call on Virginia regulators to issue a stop work order. (Roanoke Times, Augusta Free Press)

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POLITICS: U.S. House Democrats meet in Virginia to discuss how to sell wins from their historic climate law in the upcoming 2024 election when many of the projects have yet to materialize on the ground. (Politico)

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CLIMATE: A Georgia advocacy group organizes teams from congregations and faith organizations across the state to add energy efficiency upgrades and advocate for clean energy, environmental justice and climate action. (WABE)

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COMMENTARY:

• Florida needs to diversify its energy sources because it’s too reliant on natural gas and therefore susceptible to the price fluctuations that come with it, writes the state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. (Invading Sea/Palm Beach Post)
• A Harvard student who grew up in the Permian Basin reflects on its booming natural gas industry and the challenge to ensure the region and its workers are part of the clean energy transition away from fossil fuels. (Harvard Crimson)

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