SMART GRID: Illinois regulators approve a plan by ComEd to share anonymous energy usage data with interested parties as part of a broader effort to develop energy-saving programs. (Midwest Energy News)
WIND: A North Dakota Republican introduces legislation to halt wind development for two years in an effort to boost the state’s coal plants. (Forum News Service)
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COAL:
• The University of Iowa plans to end its coal use by 2025 as a “logical next step” in its transition to renewables. (Radio Iowa)
• Critics of a plan to close two Ohio coal plants say it would cost hundreds of jobs and cause millions in local economic losses. (Dayton Daily News)
REGULATION:
• President Trump appears poised to sign an executive order aimed at rolling back Obama-era rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from utilities. (Washington Post)
• U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt questions whether the agency has the ability to regulate carbon emissions. (Greenwire)
CLIMATE: Local officials in Carmel, Indiana unanimously approve a plan to measure the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and begin reducing them. (Indianapolis Star)
EFFICIENCY: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder tells a gathering in the Upper Peninsula that there are more opportunities for energy efficiency there. (Marquette Mining Journal)
PIPELINES:
• As North Dakota‘s governor talks with the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, some Dakota Access pipeline protesters remain despite the threat of flooding and arrest as an evacuation deadline looms this week. (Associated Press)
• Protesters gather in Winona, Minnesota against Dakota Access as well as possible local financial connections to the pipeline. (Winona Daily News)
STORAGE: Major lenders are looking to finance large-scale energy storage projects in the U.S., “marking a coming-of-age moment for the fledgling industry.” (Bloomberg)
COMMENTARY:
• The executive director of the Sierra Club says the clean energy transition is happening, and President Trump can’t stop it. (Huffington Post)
• Two Indiana professors say a plan to eliminate net metering there is “based on a lack of evidence and faulty logic, and would severely undermine the future of solar power in the state.” (Johnson County Daily Journal)
• A Washington D.C.-based libertarian group says Minnesota Republicans should consider allowing competition in the state’s electric market in light of Xcel’s plans to build a major gas plant. (Rochester Post Bulletin)