OIL & GAS:
• A longtime Minnesota Pollution Control Agency employee files a whistleblower lawsuit claiming he faced retaliation for raising concerns about how the agency handles petroleum leak sites. (MPR News)
• North Dakota officials are investigating an active but contained oil well fire at a site with about 1,360 barrels of crude oil and 1,670 barrels of produced water. (Valley News Live)
UTILITIES: ComEd increases its capital spending plan by $300 million over the next three years as its parent company Exelon spins off its regulated utilities. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The company behind a proposed Minnesota nickel mine signs a major deal to supply Tesla with 75,000 metric tons of nickel concentrate, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, over six years. (Star Tribune)
• Automakers plan to launch dozens of new electric vehicle models in the next two years, shifting the pressure on car companies from developing them to convincing consumers to buy them. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)
SOLAR: An Indiana municipal airport is moving forward with a solar project that was first envisioned by a high school intern and that will produce about $175,000 in net energy savings for the airport. (Chronicle-Tribune)
CARBON CAPTURE:
• A planned pipeline that would transport carbon dioxide to North Dakota for disposal intends to capture emissions from an ammonia plant under a new partnership. (Bismarck Tribune)
• The developer of a planned carbon pipeline originating in South Dakota plans to start public meetings in west-central Illinois where carbon dioxide would be injected underground. (Journal Courier)
ACTIVISM: The former owner of Bell’s Brewery is named the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club’s environmentalist of the year for his decade-long work advocating against the Line 5 pipeline. (MLive)
COAL: A coal miner died in an underground accident over the weekend at a mine in southern Indiana. (Associated Press)
EMISSIONS: General Motors says it will recognize California’s authority to set vehicle emission standards under the Clean Air Act, making the automaker eligible for government fleet purchases in the state. (Reuters)
COMMENTARY:
• The chairperson of Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission says the agency begins 2022 focused on the clean energy transition with six solar projects already under review totaling 614 MW of new generation. (Sun Prairie Star)
• Iowa environmental advocates mark the one-year anniversary of the adoption of Des Moines’ carbon-free electricity goal by 2035, saying it was “not an end, but a beginning.” (Des Moines Register)