WIND: Transmission constraints mean new new wind capacity has been added in Wyoming in the past five years. (Casper Star-Tribune)

SOLAR:
• A solar executive explains why his company pulled out of Nevada. (Las Vegas Sun)
• An Arizona district will install solar panels at all of its schools. (Arizona Daily Star)
• At least 10 community solar projects are under development in Maine. (Portland Press Herald)
• Former Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr.’s fight for utility customers looking to install their own solar power comes to the Midwest. (Midwest Energy News)
• Large energy users feel they’re being squeezed out by new restrictions in Minnesota’s community solar law. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

POLICY: A Pennsylvania Republican introduces a bill that would prohibit state regulators from limiting the amount of energy that distributed generators — such as farm biodigesters and solar arrays — can sell back to the grid. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

TRANSMISSION: A proposed transmission line running under Lake Champlain would connect upstate New York wind farms with New England’s power grid. (WAMC)

COAL:
• A Utah county unveils a memorial to the 1,352 workers who have died working in local mines. (Salt Lake City Deseret News)
• For the first time in about a century, not a single working miner in Kentucky belongs to a union. (Associated Press)

OIL BY RAIL: Advocates point out that nearly 15,000 schools across the country are located within the “blast zone” around railroad tracks. (Reuters)

FRACKING:
• Attorneys defend Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s decision to invalidate multiple local ballot initiatives to ban fracking. (Associated Press)
• As oil and gas production has increased in the U.S., so, too, has the amount of salty wastewater from the fracking process. (Associated Press)
• States rarely punish companies for wastewater spills. (Associated Press)
• A new report tallies the pollution impact of drilling on University of Texas lands. (Austin American-Statesman)
• Kansas officials say that despite fewer earthquakes, the state should not be complacent in regulating fracking. (Associated Press)
• A new report chronicles the latest in industry-backed efforts to produce favorable academic studies. (Desmog Blog)

POLLUTION: Scientist find herring and salmon are harmed by lower levels of oil pollution than previously thought. (Seattle Times)

POLITICS:
• Congressional Republicans plan to use hearings over a Colorado mine wastewater spill to discredit the EPA. (The Hill)
• Republican lawmakers are also planning to undermine international agreements on climate change. (Politico)

CLIMATE: Sea-level rise is proving a better way to communicate about climate change in Florida. (Saint Peters Blog)

BIOFUELS: An explosion at a Louisiana biofuels plant injures four workers. (Baton Rouge Advocate)

COMMENTARY: Why coal bankruptcies on their own won’t lead to a lower-carbon future. (Slate)

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy and is a founding editor of both Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a copy editor, online producer, features editor and night city editor. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

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