FINANCING: Amid ongoing uncertainty at the Ohio legislature, the state’s largest county is taking steps on its own to use clean energy financing as an economic development tool. (Midwest Energy News)
SOLAR: An Iowa solar installer is at odds with a utility over rates he says are a detriment to large energy users going with solar. (Midwest Energy News)
***SPONSORED LINK: Want a green energy job with a good salary? Acquire specialized training in economics and statistics through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s unique, 10-month, professional master’s program in Resource and Energy Demand Analysis. Starting summer 2016.***
INDIANA: Wind development has slowed in Indiana due to low natural-gas prices, but solar energy is “making inroads.” (Platts)
OIL AND GAS:
• North Dakota will end a program allowing farmers to sell their irrigation water for fracking. (Grand Forks Herald)
• An Ohio manufacturer that makes pipe for the oil and gas industry continues to shed jobs due to market conditions. (Columbus Business First)
• After a three-day blowout and an unspecified amount of oil spilled, workers cap a North Dakota oil well. (Bismarck Tribune)
TRANSMISSION: Clean-energy developers are having their Keystone XL moment as they confront Midwest landowners who don’t want large transmission lines on their property moving wind energy. (Reuters)
KEYSTONE XL: Pipeline opponents continue to push for overturning a Nebraska law that would allow companies to bypass a regulatory commission when seeking route approval. (Associated Press)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: State regulators and utilities are seeing advantages to taking a mass-based approach to compliance for its simplicity in quantifying emission reductions. (EnergyWire)
NUCLEAR:
• After being closed for a month, a Michigan reactor returns to service after a $58 million upgrade. (MLive)
• The Obama administration is developing plans for transporting used reactor fuel to temporary storage sites and creating a federal corporation to oversee the process. (Greenwire)
VW EMISSIONS SCANDAL: Wisconsin joins the multistate investigation into how to hold the automaker accountable for its cheating on emissions. (Associated Press)
STORAGE: Experts agree that the costs for storing energy continue to decline — the ongoing dispute is over the value of that stored product. (Utility Dive)
***SPONSORED LINK: Hear top executives from the area’s RTOs, utilities, transmission developers, and state regulatory agencies discuss and debate critical issues at EUCI’s Transmission Expansion in the Midwest conference November 9-10 in Indianapolis.***
ADVOCACY: An attorney with a consumer watchdog group in Ohio leaves the organization to join a power company. (Columbus Business First)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: General Motors says its new long-range Chevy Bolt will be able to go 200 miles on a single charge. (Associated Press)