EFFICIENCY: FirstEnergy, one of Ohio’s largest utilities, wants lawmakers to suspend the state’s landmark 2008 energy efficiency law during the upcoming lame duck legislative session. (Midwest Energy News)
ETHANOL: The EPA rejects requests by several governors to waive federal ethanol mandates in response to high corn prices. (Greenwire)
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CLIMATE: A new World Bank report says the earth is on track to see a 7°F temperature rise by 2100, with the impacts hitting poor areas of the world the hardest. (The Hill)
COAL: A newspaper investigation finds Indiana customers of Vectren Corp. paid higher rates as the result of expensive contracts the utility made with its own coal subsidiary. (Indianapolis Star)
ALSO: A worker is killed in an accident at an Illinois coal mine; and an NAACP report finds Illinois leads the U.S. in the number of coal plants that disproportionately affect minority communities, followed by Indiana and Michigan. (Associated Press, Great Lakes Echo)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Battery maker A123 Systems says it received a nearly $1 million federal grant on the day it filed for bankruptcy. (Reuters)
FRACKING: Officials in Youngstown, Ohio, considers allowing natural gas drilling in city parks. (Youngstown Vindicator)
SOLAR: An East Lansing, Michigan, food co-op enters Consumers Energy’s solar program with a project that will provide half the building’s energy. (Lansing State Journal)
COMMENTARY: Coal really does kill people, and what President Obama can do about climate change over the next four years. (Slate, Mother Jones)