OIL: A Superior, Wisconsin refinery proposes a loading dock to ship North Dakota oil on the Great Lakes. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

ALSO: The oil boom takes a toll on North Dakota’s hospitals, which are being overwhelmed by uninsured workers with serious injuries; and Enbridge resists a proposed EPA order to dredge the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, where crude from a 2010 pipeline rupture remains. (New York Times, InsideClimate News)

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RED STATE, GREEN REPUBLICAN: A Q&A with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who says his sustainability initiatives are less about the environment and more about “common sense.” (Midwest Energy News)

BIOFUELS: A federal court sides with the oil industry in a challenge to the EPA cellulosic biofuel mandate, and a Missouri ethanol plant is forced to shut down because of the drought. (Greenwire, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

POLITICS: Frustrated with congressional gridlock, aides with expertise in energy and the environment are ditching Capitol Hill. (National Journal)

WIND: Ohio State University expects to save $1 million on its energy bill this year by buying wind power, a wind farm storage battery in Minnesota is back online after a 15-month shutdown for safety upgrades, and Minnesota’s attorney general sues a wind turbine vendor accused of bilking farmers throughout the state. (Columbus Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

EFFICIENCY: Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium develops a plan to cut its energy consumption, the 83-year-old facility spends more than $1.5 million on electricity and natural gas each year. (Chicago Tribune)

TRANSPORTATION: A Wisconsin technical school trains technicians to repair truck engines powered by compressed natural gas. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

BIOMASS: Food waste and manure are converted to electricity in a Michigan power plant, and the company that built it has plans for more. (Detroit Free Press)

COMMENTARY: How states, not the federal government, may hold the solution to climate change. (Boston Globe)

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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