CLIMATE: Royal Dutch Shell announced it will drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council over the group’s stance on climate change. (The Hill)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: The first round of legal fights over EPA carbon rules is expected in the coming weeks. (Wall Street Journal)
WIND:
• The first utility-scale wind farm in southern Arizona, coupled with more than 40 MW of solar power, begins producing electricity. (Arizona Daily Star)
• Plans to tap South Dakota’s vast wind energy could face tough community-level fights over aesthetics. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader)
• Questions persist over how wind energy can grow without the federal Production Tax Credit. (EnergyWire)
• Hewlett-Packard will power a Texas data center with energy from one of the country’s largest wind farms. (Dallas Business Journal)
SOLAR: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker files legislation that will expand solar power in the state. (Associated Press)
COAL:
• An Ohio Company is about to start strip mining for coal on nearly 1,000 acres of state property in a wildlife area. (Columbus Dispatch)
• Dozens of senators are asking the Obama administration to double the public comment period for a new mountaintop removal mining regulation. (The Hill)
OIL AND GAS:
• Oil markets are seeing “unprecedented” changes. (Business Insider)
• U.S. refineries are running at record high volumes. (The Hill)
• A South Carolina church is at the center of a dispute over a proposed natural gas pipeline. (The State)
• Colorado could see a ballot issue over fracking in 2016. (Greeley Tribune)
• Producers in the Marcellus and Utica shales eagerly await new pipelines to open up Midwest markets. (Pittsburgh Tribune)
• Washington state aims to become a leader in oil train safety. (Puget Sound Business Journal)
POLLUTION: An interstate water commission is considering extending a policy that allows power plants and other industrial polluters to exceed mercury standards when wastewater enters the Ohio River. (Midwest Energy News)
INVESTING: Clean-energy stock funds are in some instances outperforming fossil fuels. (Associated Press)
MEDIA: New Mexico regulators are suing a Santa Fe newspaper to try to block publication of information from a utility case it says was inadvertently released to a reporter. (Albuquerque Journal)
COMMENTARY: Five myths about coal. (Washington Post)