White House: Wind tax credit ​‘will be a top priority’

WIND: A White House official says extending the wind tax credit ​“will be a top priority” for the administration, as President Obama, campaigning in Council Bluffs, Iowa, touts an Energy Department report showing nearly one-third of new generating capacity installed in the U.S. in 2011 was wind. And with 800 jobs in his state on the line, a North Dakota Republican says he also supports extending the tax credit. (Reuters, The Hill, Fargo Forum)

MEANWHILE: A Romney campaign spokesperson says the candidate supports the wind industry, but not ​“steering investment toward particular politically favored approaches.” Gov. Romney will be stopping at an Ohio coal mine today. (Recharge News, Columbus Dispatch)

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TRANSPORTATION: At an annual conference in Traverse City, representatives from the Big Three automakers discuss their strategies for improving fuel economy while still meeting consumer demands. (Midwest Energy News)

FRACKING: The government agency in charge of a registry of hydraulic fracturing chemicals has refused to release the full database to the public; and an Ohio official says wastewater injection wells, although targeted by environmentalists for protest, are ​“the safest way overall to get rid of these wastes.” (EnergyWire, Columbus Dispatch)

PIPELINES: A portable water treatment plant is operating at the site of a gasoline spill in Wisconsin last month, where 23 private water wells are now contaminated. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

EPA: Industry groups and three states are asking a federal appeals court to rehear a case in which judges upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. (Greenwire)

MICHIGAN: The Michigan Bureau of Elections says a ballot measure to expand the state’s renewable energy standard has enough signatures to go on the ballot. (MLive.com)

EFFICIENCY: A Grand Rapids, Michigan, hospital is saving $170,000 a year on energy after installing LED lights in its parking garage. (MLive.com)

COMMENTARY: Why North Dakota’s oil boom may be short-lived, a climate change fix conservatives can love, and why the Illinois legislature ​“needs to take the hint” after Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a coal-to-gas project. (Financial Times, Grist, Chicago Tribune)