GRID: Minnesota utilities are pursuing renewable energy projects near former fossil fuel plants where they can more easily connect to the transmission system and avoid long interconnection delays. (Energy News Network)

PIPELINES:
• North Dakota can continue to seek reimbursement from the federal government for millions of dollars spent policing Dakota Access pipeline protests, a federal judge rules. (Associated Press)
• Line 5 pipeline protesters were alone and unencumbered for at least an hour at an emergency valve site in eastern Michigan because of a law enforcement delay. (Detroit News)

SOLAR:
• State regulators say an environmental impact statement isn’t necessary for a planned 300 MW solar and 165 MW battery storage project in southern Wisconsin. (News & Independent)
• A developer secures financing for a 149 MW solar project in Michigan that will produce power for Consumers Energy and DTE Energy. (PV Magazine)

RENEWABLES:
• A 100% federal clean energy target by 2035 could spur up to $94 billion annually in clean energy investments to build nearly 1,000 gigawatts of wind and solar, according to an analysis. (S&P Global)
• Some Ohio farmers oppose a county’s plan to increase restrictions on wind and solar development: “We don’t want our rights restricted as to what we can use our land for.” (WOSU)

BIOENERGY:
• University of Michigan researchers seek to take the principles of cow digestion to make anaerobic digesters run more efficiently and to accept more feedstocks. (Centered)
• A utility completes a 33-mile pipeline in Ohio to transport landfill gas to a larger pipeline system. (Natural Gas Intelligence)
• The University of Iowa is experimenting with a variety of biomass feedstocks that could produce enough steam to keep campus buildings operating as the school’s power plant transitions from coal. (Daily Iowan)

CLIMATE: Loyola University in Chicago announces plans to divest its financial holdings in fossil fuel companies. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

UTILITIES:
• Michigan Republicans propose a bill that would allow industrial electric customers to choose their power supplier while requiring most of the generation to be produced in-state. (MiBiz)
• Michigan’s two major utilities plan to increase investments in tree trimming to avoid more widespread outages like those seen this year, but a top Republican lawmaker is encouraging more spending. (Detroit News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Indiana business leaders say the state’s strong auto manufacturing sector and supply chain positions it well for electric vehicle investments. (Inside Indiana Business)

COMMENTARY:
• A Canadian environmental advocate says the country’s move to invoke a 1977 treaty to keep Line 5 open prioritizes the “financial interests of a fossil fuel giant over what’s best for Canadians.” (Toronto Star)
• The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has needed reforms for years as it “repeatedly rubber stamped questionable rate hikes” for FirstEnergy, long before the utility’s involvement in a scandal to bail out its uneconomic power plants, an editorial board writes. (Toledo Blade)