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TECHNOLOGY: President Obama, who will visit Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois today, is expected to announce a plan to use $2 billion in federal revenue from oil and gas leases to fund research on advanced vehicles. (New York Times)
TRANSMISSION: Owners of a Minnesota organic dairy say a planned high-voltage line will jeopardize the health of their cows and force the farm to relocate. However, there is little, if any, scientific evidence to support that claim. (Midwest Energy News)
CLIMATE: The White House is preparing to require federal agencies to consider climate change impacts before approving major projects. (Bloomberg)
OIL: The EPA will require Enbridge to do more dredging as cleanup of the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill continues, petroleum coke piles along the Detroit River will remain long-term, and increasing shipments of oil by rail raise safety concerns in Wisconsin. (Detroit Free Press, LaCrosse Tribune)
KEYSTONE XL: In a meeting with House Republicans, President Obama downplays job projections and environmental impacts from Keystone XL and says the administration will make a decision on the pipeline soon; and new data shows refineries that will be served by Keystone XL are already exporting 60 percent of their gasoline. (E&E Daily, Oil Change International)
FRACKING: Illinois lawmakers reach an agreement on oil and gas taxes, drillers in Ohio focus on a narrow slice of the Utica Shale, and local officials in Carbondale, Illinois, want to ensure the town has the authority to ban fracking. (Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Carbondale Southern)
COAL: A Texas company plans to take over Ameren’s five Illinois coal plants, and St. Louis-based Patriot Coal asks a court to terminate $1.6 billion in health benefits for thousands of retirees as part of its bankruptcy plan. (Chicago Tribune, Reuters)
SOLAR: Workers will break ground today on a 75-acre solar farm near at the Indianapolis International Airport. (Indianapolis Star)
NUCLEAR: Exelon says upgrades to its nuclear fleet could boost its output by 1,100 MW by 2021. (Reuters)
TRANSPORTATION: Sheboygan, Wisconsin makes a move to natural gas vehicles; and more states consider raising gasoline taxes to pay for road infrastructure. (Sheboygan Press, Reuters)
WIND: An Australian researcher says symptoms of “wind turbine syndrome” correlate with people being exposed to health warnings by anti-wind activists. (The Guardian)
COMMENTARY: The facts on fracking, and why Bjorn Lomborg’s green-car criticism fails at math. (New York Times, The Energy Collective)