CLEAN ENERGY: Officials in Madison, Wisconsin vote overwhelmingly to accelerate clean energy programs that would reduce the city’s carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. (Midwest Energy News)
WIND:
• A Wisconsin electric cooperative plans to buy 98 megawatts of wind power from a forthcoming project, nearly tripling the utility’s wind capacity. (LaCrosse Tribune)
• It will be the first wind project built in Wisconsin in at least the past five years. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• An industry group says boosting wind production in Ohio would save ratepayers $3 billion over the next 15 years. (WKSU)
• A public hearing over a proposed North Dakota wind farm runs for more than 10 hours. (Ag Week)
• Residents across rural Indiana are building opposition to developers’ plans to boost wind production. (Goshen News)
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COAL: DTE Energy plans to retire eight more units at three of its southeast Michigan coal plants by 2023, replacing the generation with natural gas, wind and solar. (Detroit Free Press)
OIL AND GAS:
• Since having its plans for the Keystone XL pipeline rejected by the Obama administration, TransCanada has “quietly consolidated an ambitious North America-wide fracked gas-carrying pipeline network.” (DeSmog Blog)
• Local officials again delay a decision on whether to approve an $850 million oil refinery near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. (Associated Press)
• A Milwaukee-based oil distribution company plans to merge with two other Midwest distributors. (Milwaukee Business Journal)
• A North Dakota judge has upheld a city’s deadline to force out oil patch housing camps, though opponents vow to continue the legal fight. (Williston Herald)
GEOTHERMAL: Ball State University in Indiana will soon meet its heating and cooling needs with a major geothermal system. (Ball State Daily)
UTILITIES: Missouri regulators vote to investigate whether a proposed acquisition of Westar Energy by Great Plains Energy will have an impact on ratepayers in the state. (Topeka Capital-Journal)
PIPELINES: North Dakota regulators approve a short, 10-mile crude oil pipeline capable of moving up to one million gallons per day. (Associated Press)
GRID: New rules in the PJM power grid could complicate responses to surging demand.(Utility Dive)
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REGULATION: Regulators from 14 states throughout the Midwest will gather in North Dakota next week to discuss emerging policy issues. (Associated Press)
POLITICS: Former Ohio governor and U.S. Senate candidate Ted Strickland says his opponent, Sen. Rob Portman, “doesn’t know a damn thing about Appalachia coal communities and pretends to be terribly concerned.” (Youngstown Vindicator)