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CLIMATE:
• At a White House appearance, Pope Francis says climate change “is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.” (The Guardian)
• Coinciding with with Pope Francis’s visit, leaders from several other major countries are expected to make climate change announcements this week. (ClimateWire)
• Utah’s ski industry is “increasingly alarmed” about the economic toll of climate change. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Walmart, Nike and Starbucks are among a group of U.S. companies that have committed to using 100 percent renewable energy. (Huffington Post)
SOLAR:
• Net metering and battery storage technology are inherently at odds with each other, creating clashes between some allies. (EnergyWire)
• Arizona regulators were caught off guard by efforts to force some members to recuse themselves in utility cases. (Phoenix Business Journal)
• A solar farm could be built on the site of a former Massachusetts coal plant. (MassLive)
WIND:
• Why wind energy is surging in Texas but stalling in the West (spoiler: transmission). (Greentech Media)
• What could become California’s first offshore wind farm is under development. (San Luis Obispo Tribune)
FRACKING:
• Many fracking firms that drove the oil and natural gas boom are struggling to survive.(The Wall Street Journal)
• A new report says Michigan’s oil and gas industry and state regulators have a long way to go to convince the public that fracking is environmentally sound. (Associated Press)
• Colorado’s governor says towns that ban fracking should compensate residents with oil and gas reserves that can’t be tapped. (Denver Business Journal)
• Participants in a California panel say the fracking debate is overshadowing larger issues in the oil and gas industry. (Bakersfield Californian)
COAL:
• The number of operating coal mines has hit its lowest point on record, says an EIA report. (Climate Central)
• The coal-fired pizza trend is a bright spot for the industry. (Boston Globe)
• Michigan’s two U.S. senators introduce federal legislation meant to prevent oil spills by tanker or pipeline in the Great Lakes. (MLive)
NATURAL GAS: Federal regulators accuse Total of manipulating natural gas markets in the Southwest. (Reuters)
VW POLLUTION CASE:
• How scientists at West Virginia University caught VW hacking the EPA’s emissions test software.(National Public Radio)
• Rough calculations place the impact of VW’s excess emissions at between 58 and 520 premature deaths worldwide each year. (Vox)
• How U.S. copyright rules made it easier for VW to cheat. (Quartz)
EFFICIENCY:
• Indiana utilities show that, without energy efficiency standards as policy, they will invest less in eliminating energy waste. (Midwest Energy News)
• Democrats believe their sweeping clean-energy bill will be a major draw for voters in 2016. (Greenwire)
COMMENTARY:
• Hillary Clinton, in her own words, on why she opposes the Keystone XL pipeline. (Medium)
• Senate Democrats’ climate bill “is astonishingly substantive, a veritable policy buffet of ideas about how to rationalize and accelerate government’s role in the clean energy transition.” (Vox)