UTILITIES: A nonprofit with close ties to American Electric Power has $3 million in the bank to potentially spend on advocacy ahead of upcoming statewide elections. (Ohio Capital Journal)
CLIMATE:
• A Chicago educator helps lead a program that provides middle schoolers from BIPOC and disinvested neighborhoods hands-on interactions with nature and lessons about sustainability and climate change. (Energy News Network)
• Nebraska students urge state lawmakers to pass a resolution that acknowledges the global climate crisis and says public officials have a moral obligation to take mitigation steps. (Omaha World-Herald)
STORAGE: An energy institute releases a state-commissioned energy storage roadmap for Michigan that calls for 4,000 MW of storage capacity by 2040. (Michigan Radio)
CARBON CAPTURE: Iowa House lawmakers introduce a bill to block carbon pipeline developers from using eminent domain to secure land for their projects for the next year. (Des Moines Register)
COAL: Consumers Energy threatens to abandon plans to retire its coal fleet by 2025 if regulators create uncertainty over whether it can recover costs associated with early retirements. (Utility Dive)
PIPELINES:
• Wisconsin environmental regulators again extend a deadline to submit public comments on Enbridge’s proposal to reroute Line 5 around tribal land. (Wisconsin State Journal)
• A southeastern Michigan highway reopens after a natural gas pipeline exploded and spread debris nearby. (MLive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A company holds a ribbon cutting ceremony for an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant north of Columbus, Ohio. (Columbus Dispatch)
WIND: A northern Ohio county board plans to revisit a proposed 200 MW wind project today after the developer asked state regulators to re-open its case. (TiffinOhio.net)
GRID: Federal regulators grant grid operator MISO’s request to allow some customers a quicker interconnection process for generation projects. (RTO Insider, subscription)
SOLAR:
• An Ohio Power Siting Board public hearing this week showed a community divided over plans for a 350 MW solar project east of Columbus. (Newark Advocate)
• A northeastern Indiana county sets fees totaling tens of thousands of dollars that developers of utility-scale solar projects would have to pay to build projects. (News Sun)
EFFICIENCY: A southern Minnesota county receives $4.3 million in federal funding to invest in energy efficiency projects at county-owned buildings. (Mankato Free Press)