FRAC SAND: Environmentalists sue to stop a controversial frac sand mine near a popular Illinois state park. (Midwest Energy News)

FRACKING: A new study projects fracking will have a $9.5 billion impact on Illinois; and polls find that most Americans want tougher drilling regulations, and that a majority of Ohioans support Gov. John Kasich’s plan to increase taxes on the gas industry. (Crain’s Chicago Business, Bloomberg, Columbus Business First)

SOLAR: Small clean-energy startups aim to break the monopoly of major utilities, and the Treasury department investigates three major solar installers to determine whether they misrepresented costs in applications for federal incentives. (InsideClimate News, Washington Post)

CLIMATE: Conservative groups push lawmakers to reject carbon tax proposals. (The Hill)

OIL: A malfunctioning well sprays oil in the air near North Dakota’s Lake Sakakawea. (Fargo Forum)

TRANSPORTATION: Illinois officials reject a request to study high speed rail between Chicago and Rockford. (Rockford Register Star)

SECURITY: Iowa electric co-ops get a lesson in cybersecurity. (Des Moines Register)

COMMENTARY: Why climate change denial is “a river that is rapidly running dry” for Republicans, and why the term “net energy self-sufficiency” doesn’t really mean anything. (Houston Chronicle, Council on Foreign Relations)

 

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy, and has led the project from its inception as Midwest Energy News in 2009. 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 held a variety of editing, production, and leadership roles, and played a key role in the newspaper's transition to digital-first publishing. 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.

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