MICHIGAN: Advocates and officials at a summit yesterday called for a Michigan-focused solution to the Upper Peninsula’s energy crisis. (Midwest Energy News)

ALSO: A Michigan university seeks ways to avoid a $400,000 annual rate increase from proposed cost-shifting for the Presque Isle power plant. (Sault Ste. Marie Evening News)

***SPONSORED LINK: Join top executives from the area’s RTOs, utilities, transmission developers, and state regulatory agencies at EUCI’s Transmission Expansion in the Midwest, Nov. 4-5 in Indianapolis.***

POLLUTION: The EPA quietly ends its “watch list” for major pollution violators. (SNL)

COAL:
• A study finds a Kentucky utility overpaid $40 million for power from the Prairie State coal plant over a 20-month period. (SNL)
• Murray Energy buys more coal reserves in Illinois. (Pittsburgh Business Times)
• A Michigan utility completes pollution upgrades at a power plant it says is now one of the nation’s cleanest. (FierceEnergy)
• NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. promotes coal in a new video. (Columbus Business First)

WIND: A judge rules that a Minneapolis suburb can’t ban wind turbines. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

SOLAR: Officials say Indianapolis will soon be hope to the largest airport-based solar farm in the world. (Indiana Public Media)

OIL AND GAS:
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich says the current drilling tax is “a total and complete rip-off to the people of this state.” (Columbus Dispatch)
• A pipeline carrying natural gas byproducts catches fire in Ohio. (Columbus Dispatch)
• Frac sand mining begins to take off in Illinois. (LaSalle News Tribune)
• Low oil prices mean Keystone XL could fail the president’s climate test. (InsideClimate News)

EFFICIENCY: Ohio State University proposes outsourcing its energy management to improve efficiency. (Columbus Dispatch)

ELECTRIC CARS: GM moves production of the Chevy Volt drive unit to Michigan, more electric car owners are fueling up with solar power, and Tesla announces a lower-cost lease program. (Associated Press, Wall Street Journal)

GRID: Why Canada wants to keep an open energy border with the U.S., and energy storage is “beyond the tipping point.” (Reuters, Yale E360)

COMMENTARY: “Does the lack of even modest government support mean that renewables, energy efficiency and advanced energy technologies cannot succeed in Ohio? Not necessarily.” (Dayton Business Journal)

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.

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