An EV charging blueprint in Chicago

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Chicago-area regional government agency offers communities a blueprint for upgrading electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (Energy News Network)

ALSO: A southeastern Michigan consortium receives a $60 million federal grant to advance research into electric vehicle batteries. (Michigan Public)

UTILITIES: A grid expert says Xcel Energy’s proposal to switch Minnesota customers from fixed to variable rates would be an outlier nationally because of the major gap between peak and off-hour rates. (Star Tribune)

PIPELINES: South Dakota lawmakers advance three bills that would give landowners more rights and compensation when dealing with pipeline developers, from surveying to eminent domain cases. (South Dakota Searchlight)

GRID:

• Michigan regulators consider adding surcharges to customer bills to fund an incentive program for utilities to improve grid reliability. (CBS Detroit)
• Nearly 50 graduates of a ComEd lineworker training program will go on to work in grid maintenance positions with the company. (WIFR)

CLEAN ENERGY: Clean energy groups criticize Xcel Energy’s long-term energy plan that calls for 2,200 MW of new natural gas peaking plants and keeps three waste-to-energy plants operating for a decade after their planned retirements. (Utility Dive)

HYDROELECTRIC: Michigan utility Consumers Energy plans to seek proposals this month for 13 hydroelectric dams it hopes to sell. (MLive)

OIL & GAS:

• A group of eastern Missouri residents declare victory after a company’s plan to mine for silica sand used in fracking is rejected in court. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• An explosion at a petroleum pumping station in southern Michigan kills one worker and injures another. (ABC 57)

EFFICIENCY:

• A Minnesota rental property manager has spent decades investing in energy efficiency upgrades at old buildings as a way to reduce utility bills. (Finance & Commerce)
• Wisconsin elected officials say households will each save thousands of dollars with energy efficiency upgrades funded through federal tax credits. (Wisconsin Examiner)