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)

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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)

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy and is a founding editor of both Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News. 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 worked as a copy editor, online producer, features editor and night city editor. 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. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

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