TRANSMISSION: Ratepayers across the Midwest will be reimbursed after consumer advocates successfully challenged excessive profits by transmission companies for delivering electricity. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: Despite opposition to the rules from the state’s attorney general, Ohio officials aim to have a compliance strategy ready by September. (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register)

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EFFICIENCY:
• A large group of ratepayers — including public housing residents and low-income individuals — in Illinois still find it difficult to participate in various efficiency programs. (Midwest Energy News)
• A growing number of homeowners and renters in Minneapolis seek to make efficiency upgrades under a new partnership between the city and utilities. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• In Missouri, it’s unclear when or if a major utility’s energy efficiency rebate program will return. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

PIPELINES:
• A tribe in northern Minnesota settles a land dispute with Enbridge for $18.5 million. (Minnesota Public Radio)
• A developer has filed nearly two dozen condemnation lawsuits seeking to gain easements from landowners for a planned pipeline stretching to Illinois. (Bismarck Tribune)

OHIO:
• Chicago-based Exelon weighs in on FirstEnergy’s “bailout” request, calling it a “grossly lopsided deal” and claiming the utility can deliver as much electricity to Ohio customers for $2 billion less than FirstEnergy. (Toledo Blade)
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he “could care less” about interest groups’ stakes in the two income-guarantee requests, as long as regulators decide in the long-term best interest for reliability. (Ideastream)

SOLAR: About 700 Minnesota homeowners have taken advantage of an incentive program that lowers the costs for solar by choosing local installers. (Minnesota Public Radio)

WIND:
• As Xcel Energy moves to retire coal generation by 2030, it will depend on wind more than natural gas. (EnergyWire)
• A Kansas utility reaches a deal to buy 200 megawatts of wind power near Wichita. (Topeka Capital-Journal)

FRAC SAND: Advocates in Wisconsin launch a campaign for a countywide ban on frac-sand mining. (Jackson County Chronicle)

COAL:
• The number of coal-mining deaths nationwide continues to decline amid industry layoffs and idled operations. (Associated Press)
• Murray Energy is expected to lay off roughly 600 mine workers in Ohio and West Virginia. (Associated Press)

RENEWABLES: Despite a surplus of cheap fossil fuels, the wind and solar industries are on track for a record-breaking year in 2016. (Washington Post)

BIOFUELS:
• Iowa continues to lead the nation in biofuel production. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)
• Results of a six-year study in the Midwest show a variety of other biofuel feedstocks can yield as much biomass as corn stover. (Biofuels Digest)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Advocates in Minnesota say the electric vehicle market is at a tipping point as prices decline and charging stations expand. (CBS Minnesota)

COMMENTARY:
• Former Michigan Gov. William Milliken says there is a “strong argument” to be made to no longer transport oil through pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac. (Detroit Free Press)
• Extending federal tax credits will bring certainty to the Midwest’s wind and solar industries. (Midwest Energy News)
• Regardless of how Minnesota residents feel about oil pipelines moving through the state, they deserve a consistent review process. (Pioneer Press)
• “Wisconsin continues to gamble on a dangerous, negative strategy” to not assemble a carbon-reduction plan. (Madison Capital Times)