SOLAR:
• One Minnesota town embraces community solar primarily as a way to save money on electricity. (Midwest Energy News)
• A company is opening a new headquarters in southeast Michigan where it will manufacture solar packages for rooftop installations. (MLive)
Minnesota’s largest solar array started generating power this week at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

WIND: State regulators approve a 150-megawatt project in northwest North Dakota, the first in the oil-rich portion of the state. (Oil Patch Dispatch)

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CLIMATE CHANGE:
• Local officials in St. Paul, Minnesota commit to reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. (Pioneer Press)
Officials abroad say Congress’ vote to undermine a domestic carbon-reduction plan isn’t gaining traction in Paris. (Greenwire)
Michigan State University joins a long list of schools committing to a White House climate pledge that includes reducing emissions 45 percent by 2020. (MSU Today)

CLEAN POWER PLAN:
• President Obama says in Paris that he favors a carbon tax over regulations like the Clean Power Plan to reduce emissions. (ClimateWire)
While partisan politics cloud the direction of the Clean Power Plan, engineers see the rules as an opportunity to reinvent the power grid. (EnergyWire)
A White House official says Michigan has an opportunity to comply with the Clean Power Plan by expanding wind generation in rural areas. (WNEM-TV)

OIL AND GAS:
• Officials consider turning a vacant “man camp” for oil patch workers in North Dakota into a new mixed-use residential community. (Bismarck Tribune)
A bill that would lift the crude oil export ban and speed up pipeline permitting moves forward in Congress. (E&E Daily)

MICHIGAN: As an energy policy overhaul is pushed into next year, major utilities are still stressing the urgency of a new plan. (MLive)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: One reason electric-car ownership hasn’t taken off is because car dealers are reluctant to sell them. (New York Times)

COMMENTARY:
• ALEC-inspired legislation in Ohio could undermine the state’s ability to draft a carbon reduction plan. (NRDC Switchboard)
How to convene multiple organizations onto a path toward clean energy and promote broader change within the sector. (Midwest Energy News)
The EPA’s new biofuel targets will have negative consequences for the renewable fuels industry. (Sioux City Journal)
The Toledo Blade says FirstEnergy’s income-guarantee proposal is a “sweetheart deal” for the utility and a “raw deal” for ratepayers and the environment.

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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