COAL: Ameren plans an accelerated retirement of its second-largest coal plant, disclosing in legal filings that it will close the facility in September rather than 2024. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
ELECTRIFICATION: CenterPoint Energy is using customer-funded cash incentives and luxury vacations to encourage Minnesota builders to install natural gas appliances in new homes instead of electric alternatives. (Energy Policy Institute)
PIPELINES:
• Oil and gas pipeline companies are gearing up to build new projects or refurbish old lines to help move carbon dioxide to sequestration sites. (Reuters)
• A Minnesota state senator accuses Enbridge of withholding data on drilling fluid that was used during Line 3 construction. (MPR News)
RENEWABLES: A county public hearing in Ohio on whether to allow wind and solar projects in rural areas cuts across political lines as some landowners reject efforts that limit their options for generating income. (Ohio Capital Journal)
EMISSIONS: North Dakota’s commerce commissioner says the state’s 2030 carbon neutrality goal is attracting interest from a variety of companies looking to do business in the state. (Prairie Public Broadcasting)
UTILITIES: The Ohio Public Utilities Commission joins a coalition calling on federal regulators to tighten accounting requirements so ratepayers aren’t charged for utilities’ lobbying and political spending. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Ford’s CEO says the automaker has no plans at this time to spin off its electric vehicle business from traditional internal combustion operations, despite recent media reports. (CNBC)
OIL & GAS:
• Regulators are largely unaware how much gas is being flared and vented by producers due to limited federal oversight, lax enforcement and inconsistent data collection. (Inside Climate News)
• North Dakota’s senators call on the Biden administration to increase liquefied natural gas exports to European allies in response to Russian hostility and as a way to boost the state’s economy. (KFYR)
• Cleanup is ongoing along a southern Indiana stream where a diesel fuel spill originating from a gas station caused about 6.5 miles of sheening in the waterway. (News and Tribune)
• The Kansas state treasurer calls on the attorney general to advance a slow-moving investigation into claims of price gouging related to natural gas price spikes during a polar vortex in February 2021. (Kansas Reflector)
BIOGAS: Michigan’s second-largest city partners with DTE Energy and a regional transit agency on a program that will supply renewable natural gas from a new biodigester to bus fueling stations. (FOX 17)
COMMENTARY: Iowa Republicans seek to make it harder to use rural land for renewable energy while also opposing plans that would protect farmers’ property from condemnation by pipelines serving the ethanol industry, an editorial board writes. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)