FRACKING: Before a single permit is issued, low oil prices bring drilling speculation to a halt in Illinois. (Chicago Tribune)
WIND: Landowners in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula file a lawsuit over a wind project, and officials in an Illinois county reject a $400 million wind farm. (Midwest Energy News, Bloomington Pantagraph)
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EFFICIENCY: A Missouri utility is scaling back its once-ambitious efficiency plans. (Midwest Energy News)
SOLAR: The next big solar fight will be in Indiana, and uncertainty over tax credits could slow future solar development. (Utility Dive, New York Times)
COAL: Illinois may streamline the permitting process for new mines, a small fire is reported at a Wisconsin power plant, and North Dakota’s carbon target is “rejected with one arm and embraced with the other.” (Carbondale Southern Illinoisan, WISN, Bismarck Tribune)
NUCLEAR: A Toledo hearing over a utility plan to guarantee income from power plants centers on the nearby Davis-Besse nuclear plant, and the permit process for a Michigan plant expansion enters its final phase. (Toledo Blade)
CLIMATE: A new study predicts major economic impacts in the Midwest from climate change, and the Heartland Institute uses a Chinese journal to push climate misinformation. (MinnPost, ClimateWire)
OIL: A pipeline that leaked 40,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River is exposed on the riverbed, Enbridge may offer spill insurance in a Wisconsin county, and nearly 400 people pack a Sioux Falls hearing on a proposed pipeline. (Associated Press, Wisconsin State Journal, Sioux Falls Argus Leader)
GRID: Former FERC chair Jon Wellinghoff says the agency will win “hands down” if a demand response challenge is taken up by the Supreme Court. (Greentech Media)
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HYDRO: Three companies seek to generate power on the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
COMMENTARY: How FirstEnergy gets its way on Ohio energy policy, and why you should pay attention to Indiana’s solar debate. (Crain’s Cleveland Business, Indianapolis Star)