FRACKING: As oil and gas developers eye the New Albany Shale in southern Illinois, are landowners get a raw deal? (Midwest Energy News)
ALSO: An analysis by Bloomberg finds that drilling companies failed to list more than two out of every five wells on a voluntary “FracFocus” database the industry developed to rebuff calls for mandatory disclosure
COAL: Leucadia says it won’t push for an override of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of its proposed coal-to-gas plant in Chicago; and Minnesota regulators allow the Mesaba Energy Project, a long-stalled coal gasification project, to proceed as a natural gas plant without applying for new permits. (Chicago Tribune, Duluth News Tribune)
WIND: Iowa’s congressional delegation expects the wind production tax credit to be renewed this year, but not until after the election. (Des Moines Register)
POLITICS: The Register story also notes that President Obama, in an Iowa campaign stop, revived Mitt Romney’s “you can’t drive a car with a windmill on it” quip as a setup to a joke about the Romney family’s dog riding on top of the car. Regular readers may recall that back in March, we pointed out that actually, you can drive a car with a windmill on it.
MEANWHILE: Romney, campaigning at a coal mine in Ohio, pledges “North American energy independence” by the end of his second term. (Columbus Dispatch)
INCIDENTALLY: The campaign stop was at a mine owned by Murray Energy, which has donated almost $1 million to Republican candidates this election cycle and is one of several coal companies financing efforts to defeat the president. The American Petroleum Institute has also launched an ad campaign in swing states, including Ohio, critical of Obama’s energy record, but says the effort is not an endorsement of either candidate. (Greenwire, The Hill)
NUCLEAR: Xcel Energy shuts down two of Minnesota’s three nuclear generating units for repairs, taking 20 percent of its generating capacity offline. And this summer’s drought gives a glimpse of how a warming climate will strain nuclear plants in the future. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, InsideClimate News)
PIPELINES: Enbridge says cleanup is nearly complete at the site of last month’s oil spill in Wisconsin; and a new poll finds most rural Nebraskans support the Keystone XL pipeline, provided it bypasses the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. (Associated Press, Lincoln Journal Star)
TRANSMISSION: Minnesota regulators deny a request to reconsider a decision approving the route of a portion of the CapX2020 project through the state. (Rochester Post Bulletin)
EFFICIENCY: A Milwaukee program, using federal stimulus money, has funded 27 energy-saving projects around the city. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
COMMENTARY: Shale gas to the climate rescue, and Minnesota’s energy crossroads. (New York Times, Rochester Post Bulletin)