ARCTIC DRILLING: Federal officials gave conditional approval Monday to allow Shell to start drilling for oil off the Alaskan coast this summer, in a victory for the petroleum industry and a blow to environmentalists. (The New York Times)
KEYSTONE XL:
• The FBI breached its own internal rules when it spied on opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, internal agency documents show. (Guardian)
• Climate change ranks low among reasons American opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, behind environmental degradation, water contamination and use of hazardous chemicals, according to the latest University of Texas energy poll. (The Washington Post)
SUBSIDIES: Shell, ExxonMobil and Marathon Petroleum received subsidies totaling billions of dollars championed by politicians who received significant campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, according to a new analysis. (Guardian)
COAL:
• Michigan’s Consumers Energy plans to retire its seven oldest coal-fired power plants by April 2016, making it one of the two top U.S. energy providers for coal retirements. (FierceEnergy)
• Illinois’ Rock Island Arsenal announced a $22.4 million deal with Honeywell on Monday to replace its 101-year-old coal-fired central steam plant with natural gas boilers. (Quad-City Times)
SOLAR: Orlando’s electric utility asked Monday to install thousands of solar panels on nearly 30 acres of a site once proposed for a coal plant and used to dispose of coal ash from others. (Orlando Sentinel)
OFFSHORE WIND: The Block Island Wind Farm is set to break ground in July off the coast of Rhode Island, and with it, the future of offshore wind in the U.S. seems very real. (Climate Central)
TIDAL ENERGY: A race is on worldwide to harness the tides and waves for electrical power, with more than 100 different devices being tested by companies hoping to make a commercial breakthrough. (Climate News Network)
SOLAR ROAD: In its first six months of use, the world’s first solar road is performing better than developers thought. (Al Jazeera)
SHALE OIL:
• A long-predicted wave of consolidation in the shale oil industry has begun with Noble Energy’s $2.1 billion all-stock purchase of Rosetta Resources. (Bloomberg)
• Colorado-based producer American Eagle Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Denver on Friday, making it the latest shale oil company to restructure its debt in court. (Fuel Fix)
EFFICIENCY: A scientist at Rice University believes he can build a power-saving supercomputer to track climate change that would consume electricity equivalent to 200,000 homes with current technologies. (The New York Times)
CHP: Ohio’s “freeze” of its clean energy standards continues to hamper Ohio’s huge untapped potential for combined heat and power. (Midwest Energy News)
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Nearly 200 Iowa scientists and academics want presidential hopefuls coming through Iowa to answer some critical questions about climate change and its growing impact on residents, businesses and farmers. (The Des Moines Register)
DECARBONIZATION: The cost of decarbonizing national economies could grow by 50 percent if governments delay action to 2030, according to a new World Bank report published Monday. (Reuters)