With $1.3B factory, Virginia finally joins Southeast’s “battery belt”

STORAGE: A Tennessee company announces it will build a $1.3 billion battery separator manufacturing facility in Virginia at the same site Gov. Glenn Youngkin previously said a Ford battery factory couldn’t use. (Virginia Business, Cardinal News)

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RENEWABLES: A growing number of Mississippi farmers are leasing their land for wind and solar energy projects as they look for new revenue sources. (Mississippi Today)

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PIPELINES: Virginia officials order the Mountain Valley Pipeline to pay $17,500 for erosion and sediment control violations over a three-month period. (Cardinal News)

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OVERSIGHT: North Carolina regulators approve a new version of North Carolina’s energy plan that calls for more solar, batteries and wind, but critics attack the board for allowing Duke Energy to continue to rely on fossil fuels and miss an emissions reduction deadline. (Wilmington StarNews)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A study ranks Louisiana second in the nation for its 55% growth in electric vehicle charger installation, but advocates say the number is misleading because the state began with so few chargers and still lags when it comes to spending $73 million in federal money for the process. (Floodlight)
• General Motors partners with an energy company to offer free overnight charging to Texas electric vehicle drivers through monthly bill credits. (The Verge)

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OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA finalizes a rule levying an excess methane emissions fee on oil and gas facilities, but West Virginia U.S. Shelley Moore Capito pledges to work with Donald Trump to repeal it. (Associated Press, West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

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EFFICIENCY:

• Georgia Power launches two federally funded energy efficiency programs to offer rebates for weatherization, better insulation and more efficiency appliances. (WABE/Grist)
• A new study calls for Texas regulators, policymakers and utilities to encourage the installation of more heat pumps to slash peak winter energy demand and save residents money on their power bills. (Utility Dive)

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GRID:

• Dominion Energy and the Southern Company’s CEOs say the rapid growth of power demand for data centers and artificial intelligence makes it harder to retire fossil fuel plants and still maintain a reliable electric grid. (Bloomberg, Power)
• Google officials host a private meeting with Dominion Energy and Virginia officials to discuss grid improvements to meet data centers’ rising energy demands. (Virginia Mercury)
• Florida utilities are burying power lines and installing new technology to make the power grid more resilient against hurricanes, with Duke Energy saying “self-healing” technology prevented more than 300,000 outages in Florida during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (NPR, St. Pete Catalyst)
• A Texas lawmaker files legislation to refund Houston residents money from CenterPoint Energy’s $800 million lease of generators that largely went unused during widespread power outages after Hurricane Beryl. (Houston Chronicle)

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COMMENTARY:

• West Virginia U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito should show her support for coal miners by leading a congressional push to connect black lung benefit rates to the cost of living, writes the president of the National Black Lung Association. (Fayette Tribune)
• The announcement of a new battery separator factory finally marks Virginia’s delayed entrance into the Southeast’s emerging “battery belt,” and seems to be a better deal for the state than a Ford factory the governor previously rejected, writes an editor. (Cardinal News)

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