ELECTRIC VEHICLES: DTE Energy’s CEO says electric vehicles and other electrification efforts in Michigan could drive up grid demand and create the need for new generation. (Detroit News)
ALSO:
• Foxconn plans to announce within the next month whether it will assemble hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles at a new Wisconsin plant. (WTMJ)
• Ford’s electric Ranger truck model, released more than 20 years ago, serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of car companies overpromising and under delivering. (E&E News, subscription)
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RENEWABLES: The Ohio Senate passes a bill that would grant local governments more authority to block wind and solar projects. (Ohio Capital Journal)
FINANCE: Missouri’s state treasurer joins a coalition of Republican treasury officials warning the Biden administration that they could pull assets from banks that refuse to lend or invest in fossil fuel companies. (News Tribune)
OHIO: A timeline of the Ohio energy scandal shows a major utility angling for a bailout to keep uneconomic power plants operating and a longtime Republican lawmaker hoping to make a comeback and return to power. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
PIPELINES:
• Michigan’s attorney general dismisses claims that shutting down Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac would invoke an international treaty with Canada, arguing in a legal filing that it’s a “state-law action through and through.” (CBC)
• An Upper Peninsula telecommunications firm is one of the first third-party companies to express interest in potentially using a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline for fiber optic cables under the Straits of Mackinac. (Detroit News)
• The Keystone XL developer plans to leave sections of the project that were installed in Alberta in the ground for now. (CBC)
SOLAR: Local residents hear more details about a $700 million solar project planned at an Iowa nuclear plant that’s being decommissioned. (KCRG)
HYDROGEN: Several companies are partnering to make North Dakota a “hub” for hydrogen production, storage, transportation and consumption by harnessing the state’s natural gas resources. (Bismarck Tribune)
GRID: Significant price decreases in PJM’s latest capacity auction are set to reduce the cost of power during peak demand periods next year. (E&E News, subscription)
COAL: Local officials begin planning for lost revenue and local generation as Alliant Energy prepares to close a southern Wisconsin coal plant. (Portage Daily Register)
WIND: A Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary acquires a 54 MW wind project set to come online later this year in Iowa. (Renewables Now)
COMMENTARY:
• Biogas made from livestock farming waste in Iowa “means more pipelines, more factory farms and more pollution,” environmental advocates say. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
• As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, Wisconsin leaders should refocus on climate change and “do more to transition our economies to clean energy,” an editorial board says. (Wisconsin State Journal)