PIPELINES: TransCanada Corp. is seeking $15 billion in damages as it requests arbitration over the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. (Reuters)

WIND:
• Development of wind projects in Michigan’s “Thumb” region may help revive the area’s water-based shipping industry. (MLive)
• Researchers at the University of Akron are developing materials that could extend the life of wind turbine components. (Canton Repository)
• Supporters of the Grain Belt Express transmission project plan to present the proposal again in Missouri. (Associated Press)
• Wind developers are in fierce competition for land in an Illinois county. (The Missourian)

***SPONSORED LINK: Midwest Energy News is excited to announce that the 2016 40 Under 40 Award program opens today. Once again, we need your nominations for the top 40 emerging clean energy leaders in the Midwest. ***

CLIMATE: A group of teen activists in Minnesota push local officials to adopt an aggressive climate change resolution. (Midwest Energy News)

COAL:
• Local officials in Ohio are concerned about the potential pollution from coal ash storage ponds at a Duke Energy facility along the Ohio River. (WCPO)
• Workers recently laid off at a North Dakota mine watch as their former equipment is auctioned off. (Bismark Tribune)
• Murray Energy reaches a tentative five-year labor agreement with unionized mining workers in Ohio and West Virginia. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
• The long-awaited cleanup of toxic coal ash in an Indiana town begins. (South Bend Tribune)
• An Indiana utility looks to install $100 million worth of pollution controls at one of its coal plants. (Indianapolis Business Journal)

CLEAN ENERGY: A Michigan agency releases a new report on suggestions for boosting the state’s clean-energy sector. (Crain’s Detroit Business)

SOLAR:
• At 2.3 megawatts, Wisconsin’s largest solar project comes online at a coal-ash landfill. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Several solar projects are under construction this summer in Madison, Wisconsin. (WISC-TV)
• Clean energy groups are pushing solar adoption in Bloomington, Indiana. (Indiana Daily Student)

OIL AND GAS:
• Production in Ohio hits a “much-expected slowdown.” (Youngstown Vindicator)
• Oilfield companies in the Bakken region are increasingly hiring workers again. (Forum News Service)
• An anti-fracking group in Youngstown, Ohio says it has the necessary signatures for its sixth attempt at a ballot initiative to ban shale-gas development within the city. (Youngstown Vindicator)
• DTE Energy installs its first natural-gas powered unit at a Michigan home that can meet the owners’ electric needs. (Traverse City Record-Eagle)

BIOFUELS:
• A group of 39 U.S. senators sign on to a letter to the U.S. EPA calling for a strengthened Renewable Fuel Standard. (The Hill)
• Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad predicts that he and his son could have “some real influence” on presidential candidate Donald Trump’s views on ethanol. (Radio Iowa)

EFFICIENCY:
• A group of engineers is finishing the last of 40 energy audits on city-owned buildings in Lawrence, Kansas in an effort to identify cost savings. (Lawrence Journal-World)
• A growing number of businesses and residents in Sioux City, Iowa are seeing lower energy bills by switching to LED lighting. (Sioux City Journal)

EMISSIONS:
• Alliant Energy begins a $250 million project at one of its Wisconsin plants that is expected to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by about 90 percent. (Wisconsin State Journal)
• Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette continues his fight against the U.S. EPA’s mercury pollution rules. (Crain’s Detroit Business)

UTILITIES: The CEOs of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy are on the road answering questions and “attempting to allay investor concerns” about a planned $12.2 billion merger of the two utilities. (Topeka Capital-Journal)

COMMENTARY: Congress should intervene to ensure nuclear power remains a strong component of the U.S. generating mix. (Portage Daily Register)