OIL: North Dakota’s Bakken Shale will need costly, advanced oil recovery strategies in order to tap its full potential over the next few decades, researchers and industry officials say. (EnergyWire)
ALSO: Pipeline CEOs say they will work to restore public trust in their industry, and Detroit’s infamous petroleum coke pile will be burned in a Canadian power plant. (Calgary Herald, New York Times)
COAL: The Indiana Supreme Court wades into the controversy over the proposed Rockport coal-to-gas plant, Illinois regulators refuse to allow the new owner of five coal plants to delay pollution controls, and former coal plants in Ohio are being retrofitted to help stabilize the grid. (Evansville Courier & Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
NUCLEAR: Upgrades are ordered for 31 U.S. reactors that have designs similar to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, and utility officials solve the mystery of how goldfish wound up inside an Ohio nuclear plant. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
POLICY: Some in the wind industry fear conservatives’ support for extending master limited partnerships to renewable energy is part of an effort to undercut the production tax credit, and Colorado doubles its renewable energy standard for rural co-ops. (Politico, Denver Post)
CLIMATE: Cook County, Illinois sets a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, as part of a process aimed at saving millions on energy costs; and a new study says U.S. responsibility for cutting emissions is three times greater than China’s. (Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Bloomberg)
EFFICIENCY: A bill in the U.S. Senate would allow lenders to consider an efficient home’s lower energy costs when calculating mortgages. (New York Times)
TECHNOLOGY: A Wisconsin firm receives $45 million to help develop plug-in hybrid trucks. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
COMMENTARY: Energy scholar Vaclav Smil is urged to “come down from Contrary Mountain, pick up a shovel, and help us get this job done.” (Greentech Media)