COAL: A debate in Minnesota about the social and environmental costs of power plant pollution has caught the attention of the world’s largest private-sector coal company. (Midwest Energy News)

KEYSTONE XL: A Nebraska judge has struck down a state law giving the governor authority to reroute the Keystone XL pipeline, and declared state approval of the project “null and void.” (Omaha World-Herald)

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FRACKING: A lack of oversight leads to air pollution problems from drilling in Texas, and drilling companies won’t push for access to Ohio state parks. (InsideClimate News, Columbus Dispatch)

OIL:
• A North Dakota senator raises questions about track safety in response to a December oil train derailment. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• Safety advocates say transportation officials are underprepared for a major oil train disaster. (EnergyWire)
• Enbridge gets permission to dredge a Michigan lake as cleanup of its 2010 pipeline spill continues. (MLive)
• Leaders of North Dakota oil patch communities say they’re running out of resources to deal with the boom. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Neighbors raise concerns at a public hearing on Enbridge’s proposed Sandpiper pipeline. (Fargo Forum)
• A pipeline rupture in western North Dakota spills 75 barrels of crude oil. (Fargo Forum)

COAL ASH: Federal investigators are widening their probe of a North Carolina coal ash spill, and can coal ash be reused safely? (WRAL, Breaking Energy)

CLIMATE POLICY: A Supreme Court case Monday on EPA carbon rules is “far more important as a matter of optics than of actual legal consequences,” according to one legal expert. (New York Times)

SOLAR: A county building in Duluth will become a testing ground for three different types of solar panels, and a Milwaukee solar program is finding success with its group-purchasing model. (Duluth News Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

NUCLEAR: Exelon’s nuclear plant workers sue, alleging wage law violations; regulators cite Xcel Energy for a security violation at a Minnesota power plant; and Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear plant will face tougher regulatory scrutiny after problems with backup systems. (Crain’s Chicago Business, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Cedar Rapids Gazette)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Chinese company that bought Fisker Automotive plans to re-release the electric Karma with a gasoline-powered V8 engine. (Reuters)

EFFICIENCY: Illinois leads the U.S. in LEED-certified buildings. (CBS Chicago)

COMMENTARY: Do renewables lower energy consumption? (The Energy Collective)