OIL: An Obama administration official promoting the use of CO2 in enhanced oil recovery says there are billions of barrels of recoverable oil in Michigan. Really? (Midwest Energy News)
PIPELINES: A new report slams Enbridge’s safety record, identifying more than 800 spills on its pipelines between 1999 and 2010; and federal regulators admit they have no idea how much oil sands crude is traveling through U.S. pipelines. (Detroit Free Press, Greenwire)
*** SPONSORED LINK: TOTAL ENERGY USA, Nov. 27-29 in Houston, is a groundbreaking new conference and expo that assembles all energy sectors — fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable — to address our changing energy landscape. Register today! ***
FRACKING: Michigan lawmakers want state officials to investigate two drilling companies over possible collusion in land deals, several university studies supportive of fracking are paid for by the industry, and a North Dakota power plant finds a new revenue stream – selling hot water for use in the oil fields. (Reuters, Bloomberg, Bismarck Tribune)
SOLAR: The Toledo Free Press, a conservative weekly, publishes the first of a two-part investigation of the Ohio solar industry’s meteoric rise and subsequent decline, a new report predicts solar could be competitive with fossil fuels as early as 2016, and small U.S. solar businesses are hit hard by tariffs on Chinese imports. (Toledo Free Press, REnew Economy, InsideClimate News) (Editor’s note – this item originally misattributed the two-part solar story to the Toledo Blade)
WIND: A Swiss study looking at life-cycle emissions for wind turbines finds that as turbines have increased in size, they’ve become more efficient and have a smaller overall carbon footprint. (National Geographic)
ETHANOL: Ethanol producers suspect the oil industry for delays in the adoption of E15; and livestock producers, concerned about the drought’s impact on corn prices, back a bill to let the EPA cut biofuel production quotas. (Des Moines Register, The Hill)
COMMENTARY: Michael Levi says the reason renewable energy predictions are often wrong is because they aren’t actually predictions, and Ryan Avent says a price on carbon is no longer enough to avert the worst impacts of climate change. (Council on Foreign Relations, The Economist)