ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A southwestern Illinois school district purchases its first round of electric buses using Volkswagen settlement funds with a tentative plan to replace half of its fleet with electric models in 15 years. (Energy News Network)

OIL & GAS: North Dakota officials launch a task force to help oil and gas drillers with a variety of incentives as the number of wells shrinks and production hits its lowest level in five years. (Associated Press)

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SOLAR: A developer will seek approval from state regulators in the coming months for a 150 MW solar project in eastern Wisconsin. (Sheboygan Press)

POLICY: Clean energy legislation is on hold in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan as lawmakers focus their attention on the pandemic. (National Law Review)

GRID: Decreased power demand combined with weak natural gas prices has pushed down power costs across grid operator MISO’s territory. (S&P Global)

COAL:
• The coronavirus pandemic has so far not altered utility plans to retire coal plants, including facilities in Indiana and Michigan. (S&P Global)
• A western Michigan county receives federal grant funding for environmental assessments at the site of a coal plant scheduled to close this year. (MiBiz)

UTILITIES:
• Ohio utility AEP expects overall sales to decline 3.4% due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Columbus Business First)
• A municipal utility in southern Michigan could face $2.3 million in additional power costs in the coming year as a result of the most recent MISO capacity auction. (Coldwater Daily Reporter)

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BIOFUELS: How the ethanol industry recovers from the pandemic will significantly affect the future of major agribusiness The Andersons, which has stopped ethanol production at four facilities. (Toledo Blade)

COMMENTARY:
A coalition of advocacy groups seek to hold Duke Energy “accountable for its policies” that affect its customers and, by extension, “impede the nation’s progress toward a clean energy future.” (Environmental Working Group)
• Indigenous activist Chase Iron Eyes said recent court rulings on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines “justify the stand” he and others took at Standing Rock. (Daily Climate)

Andy compiles the Midwest Energy News digest and was a journalism fellow for Midwest Energy News from 2014-2020. He is managing editor of MiBiz in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was formerly a reporter and editor at City Pulse, Lansing’s alternative newsweekly.