NUCLEAR: Ohio’s Davis Besse plant is among dozens of “nuclear outlaws” that still don’t comply with federal fire regulations. (Midwest Energy News)
ALSO: Exelon’s CEO says the utility is not seeking a bailout from Illinois for its nuclear plants. (Chicago Tribune)
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OIL: Another train carrying Bakken crude oil derails and bursts into flames, this time in Lynchburg, Virginia; Michigan officials want Enbridge to produce evidence that pipelines running beneath the Straits of Mackinac are safe; and a worker dies on a North Dakota well site, apparently from exposure to toxic vapors. (New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Forum News Service)
OHIO: Lawmakers hold what may be the final hearing on a bill to freeze the states’s renewable energy and efficiency standards, and a manufacturers’ group proposes fixes it says would strengthen the existing laws. (WKSU, Columbus Business First)
EPA: The Supreme Court corrects a “cringe-worthy blunder” by Antonin Scalia in his dissent of this week’s ruling upholding the EPA’s cross-state pollution rule, and a federal court sets a deadline for the agency to update federal smog standards. (Associated Press)
COAL: How MISO wound up “trapped in a relationship” with an aging Upper Peninsula coal plant, and two carbon capture projects will be put to the test this year. (SNL, Nature)
UTILITIES: MidAmerican Energy Holdings is changing its name to Berkshire Hathaway Energy; MidAmerican Energy, the utility, will still keep its name. (SNL)
FRACKING: Shale-related employment continues to rise in Ohio, but remains a small segment of the state’s economy. (Columbus Dispatch)
BIOENERGY: A Wisconsin project seeks to create new energy streams from cow manure. (Wisconsin Energy Institute)
PETCOKE: Two environmental groups plan to sue the Koch brothers over pollution from petroleum coke piles in Chicago. (Climate Progress)
MEDIA: Fox News tells a science editor not to talk about climate change. (Media Matters)
COMMENTARY: Why Michigan needs a stronger renewable energy standard. (The Equation)