Obama says the ​‘C’ word

POLITICS: President Obama, addressing the Democratic National Convention last night, made a rare direct mention of climate change, saying ​“more droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke.” (The Hill)

INDUSTRY: How recapturing more waste heat can help revitalize the Midwest’s manufacturing sector. (Midwest Energy News)

COAL: On the Ohio river, coal shipments are down, steel shipments are up. (New York Times)

OIL: Delta Airlines considers buying North Dakota oil for its new Pennsylvania refinery, saying the domestic crude could be cheaper even with the expense of shipping by rail. (Associated Press)

PIPELINES: The company responsible for a gasoline spill in Wisconsin in July is now cleaning up a jet fuel spill near Chicago, and Enbridge stops contracting with a Michigan sheriff’s department for security amid conflict-of-interest concerns. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Livingston Daily Press)

STORAGE: Can a ski lift store electricity for the grid? Bill Gates thinks so. (Bloomberg)

WIND: Conservative groups urge Congress to kill the wind production tax credit, and an idle prototype turbine riles city council members in Ishpeming, Michigan. (The Hill, Marquette Mining Journal)

EFFICIENCY: A study by Intel finds immersing servers in mineral oil can cut the energy needed to cool them by as much as 20 percent. (New York Times)

TRANSPORTATION: A new Illinois law allows the state tollway authority to build its own railway lines, but the agency doesn’t have any plans to do so. (Chicago Daily Herald)

COMMENTARY: A rebuff to the CEO of Nebraska Public Power District, calling for ​“no more excuses” for the state’s lagging wind power sector. (Kearney Hub)