ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Advocates call on Minnesota Power to abandon plans for a $700 million natural gas plant in northern Wisconsin after a study finds existing plants disproportionately impact low-income and Indigenous communities. (Sahan Journal)
MICHIGAN:
• Coal plant closures, pumped storage upgrades and efforts to keep open a nuclear plant along the western Michigan shoreline embody the state’s clean energy shift. (MiBiz)
• Closing a southwestern Michigan nuclear plant would make it more difficult for the state to achieve its short-term emission-reduction goals, experts say. (MLive)
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TRANSMISSION:
• A Kansas energy regulator raises concerns over a vote to limit input from a business coalition on plans for an $85 million transmission line to Missouri. (Kansas Reflector)
• Federal regulators’ proposal to speed up transmission developments and limit competition to utilities could spark opposition from consumer advocates and independent power producers, critics say. (E&E News)
• A court rules that the developers of a controversial transmission line between Iowa and Wisconsin must wait to proceed with construction through a wildlife refuge until an appeal is settled. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)
WIND: A Cleveland recycling company seeks to repurpose used wind turbine blades into new products to avoid sending them to landfills. (KETV)
EFFICIENCY: Michigan clean energy and housing advocates are working to spend down an increasing amount of home weatherization funds with a shrinking pool of contractors at their disposal. (MiBiz)
PIPELINES:
• A North Dakota county approves a resolution formally opposing the use of eminent domain for a carbon capture pipeline in hopes of sending a message to state regulators. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Private equity-backed interests continue pursuing carbon capture pipelines through the Midwest despite growing landowner opposition. (Mother Jones)
BIOENERGY: Top Iowa officials celebrate the opening of a $115 million renewable natural gas and ethanol plant. (Des Moines Register)
UTILITIES:
• Indiana utilities shut off power to households nearly 265,000 times — the third most of any state — over the past two years, a study finds. (Indianapolis Star)
• Ameren reported a more than 8% increase in quarterly profits to start the year based on revenue recovered from ratepayers on infrastructure projects. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• A cryptocurrency mining facility in central Iowa consumes more electricity than all of the residential customers in the town combined. (Times-Republican)
COMMENTARY:
• Building a high-voltage transmission line to move power from a Kansas nuclear plant to Missouri would be a bad deal for Kansas ratepayers, a columnist writes. (Wichita Eagle)
• Indiana officials should welcome a proposed federal rule to limit coal power emissions to downwind states, which also would benefit air quality in the coal-reliant state, an editorial board writes. (Herald Bulletin)
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