PIPELINES: Canadian officials urge President-elect Biden not to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney saying the province may pursue legal damages. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Montana’s Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes are among those encouraged by President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, while Lakota activists say the Dakota Access project should be next. (Billings Gazette, Indian Country Today)
• Ohio becomes the latest state to enact harsher penalties for trespassing on or interfering with energy infrastructure, which critics say is an attempt to chill pipeline protests. (Grist)

POLICY:
• Advocates say stimulus legislation presents the best option for President-elect Biden to take quick action on climate change. (E&E News)
• In an interview, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, seen as an obstacle to sweeping climate policy, says he wants “to use all the resources we have” and that his priority is to “maintain energy independence.” (E&E News)

CLIMATE:
• Today’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Baltimore’s climate suit against major oil companies could become a national test case if the justices agree to consider whether states can properly hear such cases. (Inside Climate News)
• Former Republican EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman says the Trump administration has been “an unequivocal disaster” on climate change, with experts saying the impact will be felt for generations. (CNN)

OVERSIGHT: The Trump administration is delaying penalties for automakers that violate emissions standards, which a legal expert says is counter to a recent federal court ruling. (Washington Post)

OIL & GAS:
• French oil company Total SE is leaving the American Petroleum Institute over the trade group’s opposition to climate policy. (Reuters)
• Colorado sues to block a plan to open public lands in the state to drilling, in part because it was approved when William Perry Pendley was unlawfully acting as BLM director. (Denver Post)

COAL:
• Scrutiny of a federal mine safety agency and how it has handled the pandemic increases even as the country sees a historically low number of coal mining deaths. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIFICATION: Legislation pending in Kansas and Missouri to block cities from banning natural gas could interfere with local clean energy targets, advocates say. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR:
• Advocates say co-locating solar panels and food crops can make farms more resilient to climate change. (HuffPost)
• Some Michigan solar advocates see a potential silver lining for battery storage after regulators reduced compensation rates for Consumers Energy customers sending excess power back to the grid. (Energy News Network)
• Xcel Energy proposes paying $41 million to the federal government to exit its contract with a problem-plagued Colorado concentrated solar plant. (Denver Business Journal)
• Some Pennsylvania residents in areas slated for solar projects express fears about alleged health effects from the panels as officials work to counter misinformation. (StateImpact Pennsylvania)

TRANSMISSION: A federal appeals court grants a temporary injunction to halt construction of a Maine power line from Canada just hours after the project receives its final permit from the U.S. Energy Department. (WBUR)

UTILITIES: The debate over whether to sell or reform troubled state-owned utility Santee Cooper is shaping up as one of the most contentious issues in South Carolina’s legislative session. (Post and Courier)

COMMENTARY:
• North Carolinians support the buildout of offshore wind and other clean energy technologies as a cornerstone of state energy policy, but the state must act to see jobs and economic benefits, writes the president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. (Energy News Network)
• A Minnesota economist says burning trash for energy is “not only inefficient, it is harmful in every way that you might imagine,” including releasing carbon dioxide. (MinnPost)
• A columnist says President Trump failed to save the coal industry as promised, and should have helped transition workers into different kinds of work. (Gazette Xtra)

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Ken Paulman

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy and is a founding editor of both Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a copy editor, online producer, features editor and night city editor. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.