OHIO: State regulators are still at odds with utility FirstEnergy, which is seeking what critics call a bailout for several struggling nuclear and coal plants. (Midwest Energy News)

OIL AND GAS:
• A new mini-documentary explores the impact North Dakota’s oil boom has had on an Indian reservation there. (Midwest Energy News)
Divers are unable to detect active oil leaks from a sunken barge at the bottom of Lake Erie. (Associated Press)
A Michigan company applies for a permit to drill an exploratory well on a church property in suburban Detroit. (Associated Press)

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CLEAN POWER PLAN:
• Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan draws criticism from southern Illinois lawmakers who support the coal industry for her stance on defending the federal rules. (Southern Illinoisan)
Grid operator MISO is modeling various state-level compliance options to find the least-cost plans available for states. (EnergyWire)

RPS: A Michigan legislative committee approves a bill that sets a “goal” of 30 percent renewables by 2025, but stops short of mandating it. (MLive)

CLIMATE: Experts say other oil companies in addition to Exxon Mobil may be subject to litigation based on their funding of climate science opposition. (New York Times)

NUCLEAR: Despite a wave of recent plant closure announcements, the EIA reports that U.S. nuclear capacity would grow between 2016 and 2020. (Utility Dive)

PIPELINE: Iowa residents quickly line up to discuss the Bakken pipeline project at a public hearing next week. (KCCI-TV)

KEYSTONE XL: Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says the Obama administration should reject the project before the climate talks in Paris this month to send a signal to other countries. (ClimateWire)

COAL:
• A southern Illinois coal plant is closing due to what the owner says is a “poorly designed” capacity market run by grid operator MISO that makes plants in deregulated areas compete with regulated plants. (SNL)
• FirstEnergy decommissions a 1940s-era coal plant at the site of a proposed ethane cracker facility. (Columbus Business First)

BIOFUELS: Xcel Energy announces it will grant $1.9 million to a Minnesota university to help develop locally sourced biofuels. (Biofuels Digest)

UTILITIES:
• Wisconsin company Alliant Energy says it’s cutting 2 percent of its workforce. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Income is up at a Wisconsin municipal utility following a period of high demand due to unusually warm temperatures and higher fixed charges. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

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BATTERIES: Invenergy’s total battery storage supply available to grid operator PJM now exceeds 64 megawatts. (Utility Dive)

COMMENTARY:
• Americans for Prosperity says a proposed 5 percent severance tax would hurt Illinois’ already struggling coal industry. (Southern Illinoisan)
A former Consumers Energy official says it would be a mistake to expand Michigan’s electric choice market. (MLive)
With the latest request to delay Keystone XL, “the pipeline project has become an overblown piece of ideological symbolism.” (Rapid City Journal)

Andy compiles the Midwest Energy News digest and was a journalism fellow for Midwest Energy News from 2014-2020. He is managing editor of MiBiz in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was formerly a reporter and editor at City Pulse, Lansing’s alternative newsweekly.

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