EMISSIONS: Public health advocates say Minnesota utility regulators’ decision last month to increase the social cost of carbon will be important for dealing with the negative health impacts of climate change. (Midwest Energy News)
WIND:
• New data from the U.S. Department of Energy show Minnesota wind energy capacity grew about 9 percent last year. (Minnesota Public Radio)
• A new federal report ranks Ohio sixth in the country for small-scale, distributed wind installations, behind Minnesota and Iowa. (Columbus Business First)
• New wind projects are cutting into Nebraska’s coal consumption, which peaked in 2013. (Marketplace)
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PIPELINES:
• Multiple Michigan agencies say a draft report on potential alternatives to Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline needs major revisions. (MLive)
• Tribes opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline — while still hoping to close the flow of oil during an environmental review — propose an alternative that requires more public reporting and spill response planning. (Associated Press)
• The future of the Keystone XL pipeline could come down to three votes in Nebraska. (Washington Post)
UTILITIES: Wisconsin regulators will decide this week how We Energies customers should be charged as deferred costs related to transmission and a power plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula reach more than $800 million by 2019. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
FRACKING: A change in Ohio state law may keep another ballot measure to ban fracking in Youngstown off of local ballots in November. (Youngstown Vindicator)
SOLAR:
• A climate action group is meeting this week in Ann Arbor, Michigan to help residents streamline the process of installing panels. (MLive)
• The two companies petitioning for a tariff on imported solar panels say it would create nearly 150,000 solar-related jobs in the U.S. — a claim opponents call “preposterous.” (Greentech Media)
COAL:
• Michigan-based DTE Energy is “making its last stand” in a seven-year court battle over millions of dollars in penalties it faces after making upgrades at a coal plant. (RTO Insider)
• Competing coal supplies in Illinois led West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice to propose paying utilities $15 per ton of coal burned from fields in Ohio and several eastern states. (West Virginia MetroNews)
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CLIMATE:
• U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says he has not yet read a federal climate change report that disputes previous opinions he’s made on the topic. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
• A federal appeals court scraps an Obama-era regulation to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide when released into the atmosphere. (Bloomberg)
BIOFUELS: Minnesota-based advocacy groups take students on tours of ethanol plants to teach them about “homegrown renewable energy.” (Janesville Argus)