POLICY: Following a two-year freeze on clean energy standards, Ohio Republicans now want to make the policy optional. (Columbus Dispatch)
UTILITIES:
• Illinois regulators vote unanimously to allow Ameren to install advanced metering systems across its entire service territory, representing 1.2 million customers. (Midwest Energy News)
• One expert sees a steady shift toward performance-based ratemaking for Midwest utilities. (Midwest Energy News)
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SOLAR:
• A southern Illinois solar project will retain former coal industry workers to build it. (Southern Illinoisan)
• While attempting to discourage small-scale solar projects, Michigan’s major utilities are moving forward with large, community-scale projects. (Crain’s Detroit Business)
• Community solar projects continue popping up across western Wisconsin. (Eau Claire Leader-Telegram)
RENEWABLES: A new grid charge in proposed energy policy in Michigan would stunt solar and wind growth, advocates say. (Crain’s Detroit Business)
PIPELINES:
• The Dakota Access pipeline developer is falling behind schedule amid ongoing legal delays. (Bismarck Tribune)
• The developer has also purchased a portion of a historic ranch in North Dakota where a violent protest had occurred earlier this month. (Associated Press)
• A private firm that conducted the environmental review for the Dakota Access pipeline was simultaneously working for the project developer on a connecting pipeline. (DeSmog)
EFFICIENCY: A Kansas county is using 20 percent less energy for heating, cooling and lighting after making clean energy investments. (Lawrence Journal-World)
NUCLEAR: An Ohio nuclear plant is back online after 12 days of an unplanned shutdown caused by rain water entering the plant’s turbine. (Toledo Blade)
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OIL AND GAS: North Dakota continues to see “bleaker-than-expected” revenues coming in to the state from oil activity. (Associated Press)
COMMENTARY:
• North Dakota officials should move forward with sweeping new regulations on oil development. (Rapid City Journal)
• Ohio lawmakers’ latest revisions to clean energy policy are a “thinly-veiled attempt to water down the standards, render them unenforceable and throw them into limbo for at least the next 3 to 4 years.” (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• It’s time to start decommissioning the oil pipeline running through the Straits of Mackinac. (Petoskey News-Review)