SOLAR:
• Some Minnesota cities are collectively buying shares in community solar projects, offering a blueprint for others that may not have the resources to understand the industry. (Midwest Energy News)
• An Ohio community explores the potential for a city-owned solar project on a vacant school site. (Dayton Business Journal)
WIND: A North Dakota House committee rejects what one lawmaker called a “glorified moratorium” on new wind development. (Forum News Service)
***SPONSORED LINK: Stay current on the newest developments in the energy economy by attending the Advancing Renewables in the Midwest Conference April 24-25 in Columbia, Missouri. For registration and details: www.AdvancingRenewables.org.***
EMISSIONS: We Energies says it will continue efforts to reduce its carbon emissions at power plants across the Upper Midwest, despite President Trump’s recent executive order. (Racine Journal Times)
RENEWABLES: Key to a major Minnesota-based construction company’s bottom line is building wind and solar projects. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
CLEAN TECH: Ameren Missouri is helping to fund and lead a program that provides seed money to clean energy technology startups. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
COAL:
• In addition to the economic forces challenging coal’s viability, the industry also has relatively few jobs compared to other sectors. (Washington Post)
• An Indiana coal plant that shut down last year is not coming back online, despite President Trump’s efforts to revive the industry. (Logansport Pharos-Tribune)
PIPELINES:
• The Dakota Access pipeline developer is fighting the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes’ latest argument that the project violates their religious freedom. (Associated Press)
• The Dakota Access protests have provided a “blueprint for protests against pipelines in other states.” (Associated Press)
NUCLEAR: Renovations at a nuclear energy research lab at the University of Michigan are complete, and the facility is scheduled to reopen this week. (Associated Press)
BIOFUELS: A Dayton, Ohio-based ethanol company plans to invest $20 million to $30 million on increasing production capacity at its facilities. (Dayton Business Journal)
COMMENTARY:
• An analyst says Ohio Republicans don’t seem interested in having an honest discussion about the economics of clean energy. (Springfield News-Sun)
• A St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist says investors seem ready to welcome Peabody Energy back from bankruptcy.
• An Ohio-based columnist says Republicans’ efforts to block statewide clean energy policies “stalls Ohio’s moves into the future.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• A clean energy group says Minnesota is among several Midwest states where electric cooperatives are looking to limit oversight of “or directly undercut policies supporting” customer-owned solar. (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)
• Michigan-based Consumers Energy says it is “proceeding with plans to deliver energy reliably, safely, affordably and more cleanly than ever, and we won’t have to change course, regardless of the ultimate fate of the Clean Power Plan.” (Detroit News)