CHICAGO: Neighborhood activists who formerly took on a fight to close Chicago’s coal plants now face a new challenge in rising diesel exhaust emissions. (Midwest Energy News)

RPS: Clean-energy advocates are skeptical that Michigan utilities will continue investing in renewable energy if standards are eliminated. (Crain’s Detroit Business)

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OHIO:
• A three-year-long case filed by a ratepayer against an Ohio utility shows how state regulators’ complaint process is flawed. (Columbus Dispatch)
As it did in a similar case for FirstEnergy, PUCO staff have recommended rejecting AEP’s “bailout” proposal. (Columbus Dispatch)

OIL AND GAS:
• The U.S. House approves ending the ban on crude oil exports, but the policy has a more uncertain fate in the Senate and possibly a presidential veto. (New York Times)
A major legal fight may be brewing in Oklahoma over state officials’ authority to regulate seismic activity due to oil and gas development. (EnergyWire)

NUCLEAR: Given that it generates nearly a quarter of Michigan’s electricity, some wonder whether nuclear power will play a greater role in the state’s future energy mix. (Detroit Free Press)

COAL:
• City officials in Detroit say a company has been improperly storing a coal-based byproduct known as “coke breeze.” (Detroit Free Press)
CEO Robert Murray is taking on the federal government and the media in his efforts to protect the coal industry. (Toledo Blade)
Utilities in Michigan plan to close 25 coal-burning units by 2020. (Detroit Free Press)

PIPELINE: Enbridge’s Line 5 below the Straits of Mackinac faces an uncertain future. (Detroit Free Press)

WISCONSIN: Renewable energy and living off the grid is a way of life in Wisconsin’s Driftless region. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

BATTERIES: Analysts say Johnson Control’s possible buy-out of a battery manufacturing company would be a natural and productive extension of its business. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

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EMPLOYMENT: Energy sector job growth has occurred at nearly double the rate as total job growth in Michigan. (Detroit Free Press)

COMMENTARY:
• Even with two more years to file a Clean Power Plan compliance strategy, North Dakota should continue fighting the U.S. EPA on the rules. (Bismarck Tribune)
The president and CEO of AEP Ohio says a power-purchase agreement before state regulators is “essentially an insurance policy” on the rising costs of electricity due to plant closings. (Columbus Dispatch)
The American Lung Association praises Xcel Energy for planning to close units at its large Sherco coal plant. (St. Cloud Times)

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.

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