POLICY: Michigan lawmakers reach a bipartisan and widely praised agreement on a sweeping two-bill energy package that, among other provisions, increases the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 15 percent and keeps efficiency spending requirements in place. (MLive)
GRID: A new report by MIT researchers offers a roadmap for recalibrating the electric grid for today’s flexible, digital and decentralized landscape. (Midwest Energy News)
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EFFICIENCY: Detroit becomes the largest U.S. city to have all of its public street lights lit by LEDs. (Detroit News)
SOLAR: A small southwest Nebraska town is breaking ground on a community solar project. (KNOP)
CLEAN ENERGY: Advocates urge Indiana officials to follow Illinois’ lead on developing clean energy policy in the state. (NUVO)
OIL AND GAS:
• Cleanup crews at the scene of a North Dakota pipeline rupture are testing whether burning the spilled oil is a viable cleanup option. (Forum News Service)
• A major maintenance project is completed at BP’s refinery in northwest Indiana. (The Times of Northwest Indiana)
COAL: Dynegy is taking a different approach to keeping two Illinois coal plants open by restructuring $825 million in debt. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
TRANSPORTATION:
• General Motors begins testing autonomous electric vehicles on public roads in suburban Detroit. (Associated Press)
• A Tesla parts supplier in Michigan is planning a $27.8 million expansion that will add 58 jobs. (MLive)
PIPELINES:
• New North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum supports completion of the Dakota Access pipeline. (Associated Press)
• It’s not just Standing Rock where water resources could be threatened by a pipeline spill: The project moves beneath rivers that are equally critical water sources for hundreds of thousands of people. (Associated Press)
• Prosecutors in the first Dakota Access pipeline case want the judge to block discussion over issues about tribal sovereignty and “any other social or political cause” during the case. (Bismarck Tribune)
• After a meeting with President-elect Trump’s transition team, a representative of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was “impressed” with its willingness to consider tribal concerns on issues going forward. (Associated Press)
• Iowa landowners are still challenging the use of eminent domain, even though the Dakota Access project is already built there. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
NUCLEAR: A Michigan lawmaker introduces a resolution asking state regulators to reject a plan to prematurely close a nuclear plant in his district. (MLive)
CLIMATE:
• Officials in 24 states call on the incoming Trump administration to end the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. (Reuters)
• NASA scientists offer a three-dimensional view of how carbon emissions move through the atmosphere. (Climate Central)
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WASTE-TO-ENERGY: A Nebraska waste-to-energy plant worker is hospitalized after being exposed to hydrogen sulfide, the latest in a series of troubles for the facility. (Sioux City Journal)
COMMENTARY:
• The Cleveland Plain Dealer says Gov. John Kasich should veto legislation that effectively continues a freeze on the state’s clean energy standards.
• Enbridge says claims that it needs to “clean up” one of its pipelines in northern Minnesota, or that it plans to “abandon” it, are “patently false.” (Brainerd Dispatch)