NOTE TO READERS: Midwest Energy News will be taking a break for the Fourth of July. The email digest and site updates will return Thursday, July 5. Have a safe and fun holiday!
OIL: Federal pipeline regulators propose a $3.7 million penalty against Enbridge for the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, which would be the largest fine the agency has ever levied. (Associated Press)
WIND: At a press event outside St. Paul, wind industry representatives join a White House official to warn that as many as 37,000 jobs will be lost if Congress doesn’t extend production tax credits. (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
ALSO: Why wind farms sometimes pay to get rid of power when electricity prices go below zero. (Midwest Energy News)
SMART GRID: Utility industry groups mount a court challenge to a FERC rule that sets the same price for demand reductions as generating new power. (Greenwire)
FRACKING: The Justice Department is investigating two drilling companies following a media report that they may have colluded to drive down land values in areas of Michigan where they wanted to drill. And an analysis by Bloomberg finds that one of those companies, Chesapeake Energy, has paid a tax rate of about 1 percent over the last 23 years, thanks in large part to a century-old law. (Reuters, Bloomberg)
COAL: Ohio regulators will allow American Electric Power to increase its capacity charges, but is requiring they be gradually phased in over three years. (Columbus Business First)
CLIMATE: A new poll finds that while the majority of Americans still see climate change as a threat, it no longer ranks as their top environmental concern. (Washington Post)
‘NEARSHORING’: Consumers Energy is outsourcing some of its IT work – not to India, but to an office in Jackson, Michigan. (Detroit Free Press)
COMMENTARY: Clean energy advocate Kate Madigan says the experiences of other Midwest states show Michigan utilities’ arguments against expanding the state’s renewable energy standard no longer hold water. (Traverse City Record-Eagle)