NOTE TO READERS: Midwest Energy News is taking a break the rest of this week for Thanksgiving. Website updates and the email digest will return Monday, December 2.
CLIMATE: A new study finds methane emissions from oil and gas production could be five times higher than previously estimated. (New York Times)
ALSO: Climate activists want Minnesota’s largest coal plant closed by 2020, the White House releases the data used to calculate the social cost of carbon, and fossil fuel divestment campaigns spread across U.S. colleges. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Hill, Washington Post)
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‘PETKOCH’: Southeast Chicago residents file a class-action lawsuit over petroleum coke piles, and the petcoke controversies in Chicago and Detroit may be just the beginning. (Chicago Sun-Times, Associated Press)
ETHANOL: The CEO of a Spanish energy company says “regulatory uncertainty” over ethanol could drive investment out of the U.S., and Iowans worry they may be losing their political clout. (ClimateWire, Associated Press)
OIL: Marathon Petroleum will partner with Enbridge on a pipeline connecting North Dakota with Wisconsin, the Three Affiliated Tribes plan a natural gas power plant to cut back on flaring, and a North Dakota county declares a moratorium on oil field waste landfills. (Bismarck Tribune, Associated Press)
COAL: North Dakota’s Lignite Council opposes plans for a state conservation fund, and why Ohio’s Robert Murray is “crazy enough to buy a coal mine these days.” (Bismarck Tribune, The Deal)
WIND: Energy Department data show wind energy is taking a bigger bite out of Midwest coal consumption. (Greentech Media)
FERC: Cheryl LaFleur, a former utility executive, is appointed acting chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (Associated Press)
HYDRO: The public will get a chance to review plans for a new hydropower plant on the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
FRAC SAND: A Minnesota city is a step closer to installing air monitors to measure frac sand impacts. (Winona Daily News)
MEDIA: Coverage of climate change has declined at the New York Times since the paper dismantles its environmental desk. (New York Times)
COMMENTARY: Why transmission lines to export Iowa’s wind energy are in the state’s best interest. (Quad City Times)