PIPELINES: Enbridge and Minnesota regulators ask the state Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling requiring a full environmental review of the $2.6 billion Sandpiper project. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
DEMAND RESPONSE: Advocates are starting a pilot program in Chicago that seeks to bundle demand response and distributed energy resources to establish a clean-energy portfolio that is more valuable than its individual parts. (EnergyWire)
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SOLAR:
• General Motors and DTE Energy partner for an 800-kilowatt system for what would be the automaker’s largest solar installation at one of its plants in Michigan. (MLive)
• Illinois electric cooperatives dedicate two projects making up 1 megawatt of new solar. (Alton Telegraph)
• Developers receive local approval for a 5-megawatt community solar project in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which should be operational within a year. (St. Cloud Times)
OIL AND GAS:
• The industry pushes back against utility claims that natural gas is not a reliable fuel source. (Columbus Business First)
• A new study says abandoned oil and gas wells near existing fracking sites can act as a conduit for more methane releases that aren’t being measured. (Phys.org)
• As of Monday night, workers were unable to cap a blown oil well in North Dakota, which had leaked 67,000 gallons of crude oil. (Reuters)
EFFICIENCY: A Nebraska utility uses up its renewable energy incentive budget for the year, which is popular among customer-owners for making efficiency investments. (Lincoln Journal Star)
CLIMATE CHANGE: The University of Illinois’ updated climate action plan calls for the campus becoming carbon neutral 15 years sooner than its original goal. (News-Gazette)
POLLUTION: A new tactic being taken by green groups over what they say is the Obama administration’s weak ozone rule is that it’s not as strong as a similar Bush-era regulation. (Greenwire)
WIND: Consumers-product giant Proctor & Gamble commits to run all of its North American plants on wind power. (New York Times)
POLITICS: GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich details his “all-of-the-above” energy plan if elected, which he says relies on conservation, fossil fuels and renewables. (Toledo Blade)
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SUPREME COURT: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear another case this term that hits on similar jurisdictional issues between states and FERC, this time over providing incentives for new generation. (Greenwire)
COMMENTARY: “Self-righteous, self-important individuals” backing a fifth attempt to ban fracking in Youngstown, Ohio should “please go away.” (Youngstown Vindicator)