NOTE TO READERS: Midwest Energy News is taking an extended break for the Fourth of July. The email digest will return on Tuesday, July 8.
ACTIVISM: ‘Toxic Avenger’ Sandra Steingraber keeps a watchful eye on hydraulic fracturing industry. (Midwest Energy News)
UTILITY: Illinois attorney general accuses utility of having its customers pay for $87.9 million in employee bonuses. (Chicago Tribune)
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PIPELINE: More than a dozen environmental groups call on Michigan officials to push harder for oil-pipeline safety beneath Straits of Mackinac. (Associated Press)
COAL: Illinois-based Vectren Fuels will be sold to Sunrise Coal LLC for $296 million, future of 850 mining jobs uncertain. (Evansville Courier & Press)
BAKKEN: Hydraulic fracturing drillers in North Dakota are forced to burn excess gas due to lack of infrastructure, regulations. (Wall Street Journal)
SOLAR: Michigan-based Consumers Energy chooses 22 participants for continued solar ‘experiment.’ (MLive)
RENEWABLE: By 2030, renewables are expected to generate triple the capacity of new fossil fuels. (GreenWire)
NATURAL GAS: Kansas’ first public-access filling station for cars running on compressed natural gas opens. (Wichita Business Journal)
PIPELINE: Oil-pipeline expansion plans in North Dakota come with fears over safety. (Christian Science Monitor)
SOLAR: Decommissioned landfill in New York state to become 2.3 MW solar array. (CleanTechnica)
ETHANOL: Damage from an explosion at an ethanol plant in Kansas could top $1 million. (Associated Press)
SOLAR: Two solar companies sue state of Arizona over tax on solar leases. (Arizona Republic)
COMMENTARY: Advancing clean energy is about more than tax credits. (Daily Iowan)