FRACKING: A ProPublica investigation outlines various techniques used by drilling companies to avoid paying royalties to landowners.

ALSO: Federal investigators are investigating whether fracking chemicals are making crude oil more hazardous to ship by rail, technology to recycle drilling wastewater is being deployed in North Dakota, and Kansas officials work with a law school to help train the next generation of oil and gas attorneys. (Bloomberg, Fargo Forum, Wichita Eagle)

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WIND: Xcel Energy announces another wind farm purchase, which it says will save customers $20 million over its lifetime; a new Department of Energy report finds 72 percent of U.S. wind turbine components are manufactured domestically, up from 25 percent in 2007; and an Iowa high school considers installing a wind turbine, which it says will save $16,000 a year on energy costs. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Grist. Radio Iowa)

COAL: While many older coal plants are shutting down, many will continue operating even with restrictions on COs; and a coal company executive at an Ohio lawmaker’s forum decries what he deems President Obama’s “radical agenda” to “accomplish the total destruction of the United States coal industry.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Martins Ferry Times Leader)

OIL: Detroit’s mayor orders a pile of petroleum coke to be removed by August 27, and says it should be covered in the meantime. (Detroit Free Press)

ETHANOL: Oil industry groups, citing “severe harm to the U.S. economy,” call for the renewable fuel standard to be lowered. (The Hill)

ALEC: A Kansas lawmaker who helped craft ALEC’s model legislation targeting renewable standards says the bills “can bring benefit to Kansas consumers.” (Topeka Capital Journal)

GRID: How new synchrophasor technology will prevent massive blackouts like the one that hit the Northeast ten years ago. (EnergyWire)

PIPELINES: An ethane pipeline explodes in western Illinois, but no injuries are reported. (Associated Press)

BIOENERGY: A new anaerobic digester that converts waste from farms and dining halls into electricity goes online at Michigan State University. (Associated Press)

NATURAL GAS: Kwik Trip is making Wisconsin one of the nation’s fastest-growing states for compressed natural gas fueling. (La Crosse Tribune)

COMMENTARY: Why the far right’s embrace of solar power is not an isolated phenomenon. (The Guardian)