PIPELINE SAFETY: Enbridge is working to replace a section of a major pipeline after it spilled more than 1,000 barrels of oil into a Wisconsin field on Friday. (Reuters)
MEANWHILE: Three more water wells are found to be contaminated with benzene following the rupture of a gasoline pipeline northwest of Milwaukee earlier this month. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
WIND: Why do efforts to reduce bird fatalities at wind farms sometimes have the opposite impact on bats? Researchers are looking for answers. (Midwest Energy News)
ALSO: Iowa’s wind industry continues to push for renewal of the production tax credit, and the Obama administration imposes tariffs against wind turbine towers imported from China or Vietnam. (Des Moines Register, The Hill)
COAL: The Department of Energy cuts off funding for the Mesaba Energy Project, a long-stalled coal-to-gas project proposed for northern Minnesota; and Alliant Energy plans to shut down a southwest Wisconsin coal plant while adding pollution controls to another; and two Xcel officials talk about the future of coal in a Q&A with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. (Duluth News Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
MICHIGAN: A utility-backed study predicts a ballot measure expanding Michigan’s renewable energy standard will cost $10 billion to implement, meanwhile, a new poll finds voters in the state support the proposal by a 20-point margin. (Detroit News, Public Policy Polling)
OIL: TransCanada receives its final permit for the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline; critics blame Keystone XL delays for the Chinese takeover of an oil sands producer, even though the deal originated long before the pipeline controversy; and a North Dakota producer begins shipping oil to Gulf Coast refineries by barges on the Mississippi River. (Washington Post, EnergyWire, Dow Jones Newswires)
FRACKING: Ohio’s drilling boom enters its second phase as “midstream operators” seek secondary uses for products from the Utica Shale, and some Ohio landowners learn that companies can still drill beneath their properties even if they’ve denied permission to access their land. (Canton Repository, Columbus Dispatch)
POLITICS: A conservative group launches a series of ads intended to pressure GOP lawmakers into opposing renewable energy programs in the Farm Bill. (The Hill)
EFFICIENCY: Buildings in Bismarck, North Dakota, are cutting their power costs by as much as 50 percent through energy-efficiency technology. (Bismarck Tribune)
COMMENTARY: Richard Muller explains why he’s no longer a climate change skeptic, and the Indianapolis Star says the lines between the regulators and the regulated continue to be blurred in Indiana. (New York Times, Indianapolis Star)