SOLAR: Minnesota solar industry leaders want stricter state oversight of residential solar contractors after recent bankruptcies by out-of-state companies left dozens of homeowners with unfinished projects. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
• County officials in northern Indiana prepare to revisit a developer’s proposal for a 150 MW solar project after a nearly two-month delay. (Goshen News)
• Local officials in northern Illinois will consider plans for a 48-acre solar project that backers say would raise a local airport’s annual rent income. (Northern Star)
• A developer plans a large-scale solar project on roughly 1,500 acres of privately owned farmland in eastern Iowa. (Clinton Herald)
• Wisconsin utility Alliant Energy completes its first community solar project, a 1 MW installation north of Milwaukee. (PV Magazine)
• Tribal members participate in a solar installation training program on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in hopes of helping their communities transition to clean energy and promote energy independence. (ABC News)
COAL: Some components of Ohio’s power plant bailout law have been rescinded following a bribery investigation, but support is lacking among state lawmakers to eliminate subsidies for two 1950s-era coal plants in Ohio and Indiana. (Cleveland.com)
PIPELINES:
• Leaders and members of Native American tribes are gathering in Washington, D.C., this week for protests demanding that the Biden administration take more aggressive climate action. (Washington Post)
• The process of getting Line 3 built through northern Minnesota illustrated the risks that pipeline companies face when developing projects in this era. (CBC)
UTILITIES: Iowa environmental groups ask a court to review state regulators’ approval of MidAmerican Energy’s emission-reduction plan that critics say is incomplete and should consider more coal plant closures. (Iowa Public Radio)
WIND:
• The growth of Kansas’ wind industry depends on attracting more workers, repowering existing projects and exporting power to other states, advocates say. (Iola Register)
• Wind projects contributed $9.1 million in taxes last year that helped pay for roads, services and school facilities in an eastern Michigan county. (Checks and Balances Project)
• Xcel Energy expects to save ratepayers $200 million in reduced fuel purchases and more efficient operations after repowering a 100.5 MW wind project in southeastern Minnesota. (Post Bulletin)
CLIMATE: Madison, Wisconsin’s new sustainability director says local climate efforts are part of the “all hands on deck challenge” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Madison Capital Times)
COMMENTARY:
• Electric vehicles are an “important piece of the complex puzzle” to reduce transportation sector emissions, says a Northwest Indiana clean fuels advocate. (Times of Northwest Indiana)
• Activists’ efforts to delay construction on the Line 3 pipeline for four years created a “much less favorable environment” in the global oil market, author and advocate Winona LaDuke writes. (Star Tribune)
• Renewable portfolio standards, cap and trade, and carbon taxes are three options for Ohio to take more aggressive climate action, says the head of a public policy research firm. (Ohio Capital Journal)
• An Iowa farmer says proposed carbon dioxide pipelines across the state “will leave lasting scars and are at best only short-term fixes for a long-term problem.” (Des Moines Register)