Good morning. Appalachia’s landscape is pockmarked with unreclaimed coal mines, many of them created through mountaintop removal mining. Today we begin with a story about a new report that found hundreds of surface mines in Kentucky are lagging on reclaiming this land, which is causing ongoing environmental problems for their neighbors and communities.
Also, after repeated flooding and slow governmental response, mountain communities are building their own networks of support.
Find those stories and others about pipelines, data centers and more in today’s Southeast Energy News digest.
TODAY'S TOP NEWS
FOSSIL FUELS
A new report identifies hundreds of surface mines in eastern Kentucky where no coal has been produced since 2022, but which still haven’t been reclaimed and are causing environmental problems for neighbors. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
About a dozen activists charged in connection to protests and direct action against the Mountain Valley Pipeline appear in a Virginia court. (WDBJ, Guardian)
Researchers warn against destroying Louisiana’s carbon-storing wetlands to build pipelines and liquified natural gas export facilities. (Louisiana Illuminator)
A Virginia town partners on a water treatment plant with a company that wants to build a data center complex and gas-fired power plant over the objections of local residents. (WDBJ)
Scientists attribute the growing number of earthquakes in west Texas to the injection of wastewater into the ground from nearby fracking operations. (KTSM)
CLIMATE
In the face of recurring flooding events that have repeatedly devastated communities across central Appalachia, residents are developing community networks that can respond to disasters before state or federal officials. (Grist/Blue Ridge Public Radio)
Virginia and West Virginia still await a major disaster declaration from President Trump more than a week after major flooding, but so far he’s only done so for Kentucky. (Cardinal News, WVVA)
SOLAR
A Florida auction company installs more than 450 solar panels on its roof, with plans to save $2 million in energy costs over the next 25 years. (WTVT)
GRID
Facebook’s parent company Meta plans to build a large data center in Louisiana and power it using a 10,000-acre solar farm, three natural gas turbines, and 100 miles of new transmission lines. (WVUE)
Texas’ grid manager will let Houston utility CenterPoint Energy send large generators that sat idle after Hurricane Beryl to San Antonio so the city’s utility can alleviate a grid chokepoint. (Houston Chronicle)
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announces construction of a hydrogen-fueled microgrid to power a data center, but it will first require state lawmakers to approve legislation to allow microgrids to be powered by sources other than renewables. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
MINING
A Georgia lawmaker introduces two bills to block the expansion of mining near Okefenokee Swamp as state regulators consider permits for a company to mine titanium. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
UTILITIES
Arkansas lawmakers consider a bill to allow utilities to more easily launch projects with accompanying rate increases before they’re reviewed by state regulators. (KARK)
COMMENTARY
The head of West Virginia’s coal association scolds state leaders for courting solar and nuclear power instead of trying to attract data centers to run with energy from idle coal-fired power plants. (WV News)
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