Amid frac sand downturn, opponents look to shut it down for good

FRAC SAND: While the frac sand industry is seeing a downturn in Minnesota and Wisconsin, advocates there are fighting harder to shut it down for good. (Inside Climate News)

EFFICIENCY: Xcel Energy announces it will replace all 100,000 of its streetlights in Minnesota with LEDs. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

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COAL:
• Members of the Sierra Club in Minnesota spent the summer helping to collect 11,000 petition signatures in support of shutting down the state’s largest coal plant. (Midwest Energy News)
• The Canadian tar sands industry and electric operator NRG are sponsoring a $20 million competition seeking useful ways to reuse carbon emissions. (Climate Central)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: Kansas Republicans accuse the federal rules of directly leading to job losses in their state. (Lawrence Journal-World)

WIND: 72 new wind turbines being delivered to Michigan pushes the manufacturer Vestas over the 6,000-megawatt milestone for this year. (Denver Business Journal)

RATES: Wisconsin regulators agree to allow a printing company and potentially other manufacturers to buy electricity at wholesale rates in order to attract their business to the state. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

POLITICS: Ohio Governor and GOP presidential candidate John Kasich’s national energy plan would repeal federal carbon rules and remove limits to oil and gas production. (The Hill)

PRIVATIZATION: Ohio State University takes further steps to privatize its campus energy system. (Columbus Business First)

OIL AND GAS:
• A new federal study says grassland birds are losing habitat due to drilling in western North Dakota and more needs to be done to prevent further displacement. (Associated Press)
• In addition to low prices, cost-cutting measures being taken by companies suggest a dire outlook for tar sands oil. (MinnPost)

DEMAND RESPONSE: A former FERC chairman and champion of the commission’s demand-response rule is not encouraged by oral arguments made before the Supreme Court. (Greenwire)

PIPELINES:
• Advocates deliver more than 1,000 written objections to Iowa regulators in opposition to Dakota Access. (Quad-City Times)
• An Ohio State University researcher wants to know whether natural-gas pipelines negatively affect crop production on farmers’ property. (Columbus Business First)

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POLLUTION: An Xcel Energy subsidiary asks a federal appeals court to review a decision letting a Wisconsin city off the hook for clean up at a Superfund site the company owns on Lake Superior. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY:
• In Ohio, ​“AEP’s executives are unwilling … to take the risk but are perfectly happy to push it onto customers.” (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis)
• In a ​“quid pro coal,” members of the Ohio Energy Mandates Study Committee accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the fossil fuels industry. (Huffington Post)