SOLAR:
• A Missouri utility has begun to pay higher rebates for new west-facing solar arrays in order to encourage production during peak demand. (Midwest Energy News)
• Officials approve a housing project in Ann Arbor, Michigan that will be the city’s first solar-powered, mixed-income, net-zero cottage community. (MLive)

WIND:
• The CEO of American Electric Power says the risks associated with spending $4.5 billion on an 800-turbine wind project in Oklahoma are still less than those associated with building traditional power plants. (Columbus Business First)
• Minnesota-based Allete Clean Energy plans an $80 million project to refurbish wind turbines at sites in Iowa and Minnesota. (Sioux City Journal)

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PIPELINES: Canadian energy officials say Enbridge’s Line 5 through the Straits of Mackinac is a “critical piece of infrastructure to Ontario,” while advocates note the province doesn’t bear any risk in the event of a spill. (MLive)

OIL AND GAS:
• The Minnesota-based contractor that damaged a natural gas pipeline in North Dakota last week has a history of striking pipelines and damaging other infrastructure. (Bismarck Tribune)
• North Dakota officials are holding a hearing today on an application for a mobile oilfield waste treatment plant. (Bismarck Tribune)

EPA:
• U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reverses course on an earlier decision to delay the implementation of Obama-era rules reducing emissions of smog-causing air pollutants. (Associated Press)
• Pruitt is scheduled to visit the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center next week. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR:
• Exelon officials are confident that zero-emissions credits supporting nuclear plants in Illinois and New York will prevail in the courts. (RTO Insider)
• If power prices increase and Exelon’s Illinois plants are able to “stand on their own two feet, the subsidies likely will remain at high levels.” (Crain’s Chicago Business)

COAL: A national coal miner’s union is at odds with a federal program aimed at increasing safety training after an uptick in coal mining deaths this year. (Associated Press)

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UTILITIES: Ohio utility regulators approve an emergency surcharge on customers of a steam heat and cooling facility in Youngstown in order to keep the plant open. (Youngstown Vindicator)

COMMENTARY: Clean air advocates in Michigan support an increased renewable portfolio standard of 50 percent by 2035. (Lansing State Journal)