$6B power line makes progress

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

GRID

• The North Plains Connector transmission line, which would span three grid territories and three time zones between North Dakota and Montana, has the potential to deliver enormous grid benefits as the developer and utility work through final approvals. (Canary Media)

UTILITIES

• Consumers Energy proposes a new long-term energy plan that more than doubles its current generation capacity by 2040, taking an ​“all-of-the-above” approach that adds more than 19 GW of renewables and two new gas plants. (Detroit News)

• The Michigan Court of Appeals allows a local ballot measure to proceed giving Ann Arbor residents a vote on whether to create a municipal utility and drop DTE Energy as a provider. (Crain’s Detroit)

• The Michigan Supreme Court allows a statewide ballot measure to move forward that would restrict utilities and other large businesses from making political contributions. (Detroit News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Ohio ranks fourth among states to increase their power output in the first half of 2026, driven by a 16.3% increase in natural gas electricity generation. (Inside Climate News)

WIND

• The pipeline for new U.S. onshore wind capacity drops 4% while at least 44 gigawatts of wind projects are stuck in review at the Department of Defense, the American Clean Power Association finds. (Utility Dive)

COAL

• Iowa’s share of energy generated by coal increased in 2025, the first jump in coal generation in five years and counter to general trends spanning more than two decades, according to the Iowa Environmental Council. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

• The site of a former Ohio coal plant along Lake Erie will become a coal ash refinery that makes materials used in defense, semiconductor manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. (Cleveland.com)

DATA CENTERS

• Voters in a Kansas City suburb have now ousted three of five city council members in the past six months for supporting more than $6 billion in tax incentives for a hyperscale data center, with the last member recalled in a special election. (Kansas City Star)

OVERSIGHT

• Michigan’s race for attorney general this fall could reshape how the office favors ratepayer protections and scrutinizes utility rate cases and data center contracts as Democrat Dana Nessel departs after two terms. (Planet Detroit)

SOLAR

• A western Michigan township adopts a moratorium on data centers and energy facilities that comes as residents fight a developer’s plan for a 200-MW solar project. (Holland Sentinel)

GEOTHERMAL

• Ball State University’s geothermal energy system experiences three leaks, causing damage to campus sidewalks and moving classes online as air conditioning went out during a heat wave. (WISH)

EFFICIENCY

• More than 130 commercial buildings are out of compliance with Evanston, Illinois’ benchmarking ordinance meant to track buildings’ energy and water consumption. (Evanston Roundtable)