MICHIGAN: Is the state constitution the right place to set energy policy? Advocates say Proposal 3, which would raise the state’s renewable mandate, offers more long-term flexibility than other legislative options. (Midwest Energy News)

ALSO: Why DTE Energy’s coal investments may be driving its opposition to Proposal 3, and a study by a small-business group says the measure will cost the state 1,600 jobs per year. (Detroit Metro Times, Detroit Free Press)

OIL: The Keystone pipeline is shut down for three days after inspections revealed “possible safety issues.” (Associated Press)

CLIMATE: Minnesota’s PUC grants utilities a five-year delay on incorporating the costs of carbon emissions in their long-term planning. (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

WIND: A group of military veterans who are employed by the wind industry press congressional Republicans to extend the production tax credit. (The Hill)

POLITICS: A new round of coal-themed campaign ads blanket Ohio as Mitt Romney and President Obama compete for the title of “Mr. Coal,” and why A123’s bankruptcy may not be the political bombshell some are making it out to be. (ClimateWire, PlugInCars.com)

FRACKING: An industry group challenges the EPA’s methodology in assessing the groundwater pollution risks from fracking, and a Texas company files suit over a Minnesota county’s frac sand mining moratorium. (The Hill, Winona Daily News)

TRANSMISSION: A transmission line needed for a Wisconsin nuclear plant upgrade will cost as much as $262 million, according to a state filing this week. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

TRANSPORTATION: Why “gas anxiety” — the fear of having to stop to fill up — may be causing Chevy Volt owners to charge more frequently than Nissan Leaf owners, and an Amtrak train will hit 110 mph in Illinois today. (New York Times, Associated Press)

TECHNOLOGY: An Ohio inventor’s “personal energy generator,” which converts the kinetic energy from walking into electricity to charge a mobile phone, is catching on. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

COMMENTARY: Is the presidential campaign is “a contest to see who can pretend to be more ignorant of the environmental locomotive that’s barreling down the tracks toward us”? (Washington Post)

IN PASSING: Battery pioneer Stanford Ovshinsky, once dubbed “the Edison of our age” by The Economist magazine, died in his Michigan home this week at age 89. (New York Times)

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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