CORRECTION: An item in yesterday’s digest incorrectly stated that a DOE-funded Michigan company made electric vehicles. The company received the loan because it was planning to manufacture vehicles that run on natural gas.
WIND: MidAmerican Energy announces plans to develop $1.9 billion in new wind power in Iowa, the largest single economic investment in the state’s history. (Des Moines Register)
ALSO: Xcel Energy expands an effort to use improved weather forecasting to integrate wind and solar power to the grid, and an Ohio school district completes two new wind turbines as part of its plan to become a net-zero energy user. (Transmission & Distribution World, Toledo Blade)
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OIL: Michigan officials had planned to give a safety award to a Detroit-area refinery, but canceled the event after an April explosion and fire forced evacuations of nearby homes. (Associated Press)
FRACKING: A new factor in Ohio will manufacture natural gas processing equipment, which drillers say is needed to break a production bottleneck; and Michigan’s Chamber of Commerce announces support for fracking a day ahead of a planned protest by anti-drilling activists. (EnergyWire, MLive.com)
NORTH DAKOTA: A union study ranks North Dakota as the worst state in the U.S. for worker fatalities, with a rate nearly three times higher than the national average. (Dickinson Press)
SOLAR: Minnesota’s state Senate is expected to take up a proposed solar energy standard tomorrow. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
CONGRESS: The Senate energy committee advances five “low-hanging fruit” energy bills, including provisions for hydropower and efficiency. (Politico)
BIOMASS: Minnesota lawmakers pass a bill requiring Xcel Energy to pay more for power from a pair of wood-fired power plants. (Duluth News Tribune)
ELECTRIC CARS: The Tesla Model S gets a near-perfect rating from Consumer Reports, which says the car is “what Marty McFly might have brought back in place of his DeLorean in ‘Back to the Future’.” (Reuters)
COMMENTARY: Coral Davenport explains why carbon is so hard to regulate, and the Detroit Free Press says shipping oil across the Great Lakes is “foolhardy.” (National Journal, Detroit Free Press)