CLIMATE: Senate Democrats say their overnight “talkathon” on climate change was meant to highlight the difficulty of advancing climate legislation in the current political environment. The Huffington Post’s Kate Sheppard live-blogged the entire event. (Politico, Huffington Post)

EFFICIENCY: Indiana’s Senate votes to kill the state’s efficiency program, it is unclear whether Gov. Mike Pence will sign or veto the bill. (Indianapolis Star)

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UTILITIES: Protecting birds from power lines – and vice versa – involves relatively simple techniques, but over a massive scale. (Midwest Energy News)

AGGREGATION: Cincinnati, currently the largest U.S. city purchasing 100 percent renewable energy, may go back to fossil fuels. (Cincinnati Business Courier)

FRACKING:
• Ohio officials shut down a fracking operation after a pair of earthquakes nearby. (Columbus Dispatch)
• The oil and gas industry is paying more attention to the public’s environmental concerns. (Wall Street Journal)
• A geologist says Ohio’s shale play is smaller than expected but there still “will be quite a heydey.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Activists in Youngstown, Ohio are undeterred as they make their third attempt to pass an anti-fracking ballot measure. (Youngstown Vindicator)

NATURAL GAS: The gas industry may have trouble meeting demand, and corrosion is found to be the cause of a 2012 pipeline explosion in West Virginia. (Associated Press, Columbus Dispatch)

OIL: A North Dakota official says an influx of tar sands crude won’t impact the state’s oil production, and a federal plan to slow down oil trains covers only a limited area. (Associated Press, National Journal)

COAL: Coal plant shutdowns raise concerns about higher energy costs during the next harsh winter, and an Indianapolis steam plant receives its last shipment of coal. (New York Times, Indianapolis Star)

PETCOKE: A bill to regulate petcoke storage in Illinois gains support in the legislature. (Chicago Sun-Times)

WIND: An Illinois bill would give the state authority to regulate wind farms, and a turbine manufacturer sues an Iowa town in a tax dispute. (Paxton Record, Cedar Rapids Gazette)

ETHANOL: U.S. ethanol exports could reach 1 billion gallons this year. (Ethanol Producer)

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BIOENERGY: A large biodigester in Wisconsin could see a larger tax bill under a bill advancing in the state legislature. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

COMMENTARY: How solar disrupts traditional grid planning. (Greentech Media)

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy, and has led the project from its inception as Midwest Energy News in 2009. 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 held a variety of editing, production, and leadership roles, and played a key role in the newspaper's transition to digital-first publishing. 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.

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