Former Ohio regulator, FirstEnergy officials indicted

OHIO: Ohio’s attorney general files a total of 44 charges against a former top energy regulator and two former FirstEnergy executives for their alleged roles in a bribery and money-laundering scandal meant to benefit the utility. (Ohio Capital Journal)

ALSO: Consumer advocates and Democrats continue to call for the full repeal of House Bill 6, which includes subsidies totaling $500,000 a day to prop up uneconomic coal plants. (Columbus Dispatch)

CLIMATE: For a Chicago-based artist, Afrofuturism provides a lens for resolving the climate crisis, community disinvestment and social issues that remain inseparable. (Energy News Network)

PIPELINES:

• South Dakota lawmakers reject a bill that would have prevented a proposed carbon pipeline from using eminent domain. (South Dakota Searchlight)
• Tribal attorneys argue in federal court that Line 5 should immediately be shut down on tribal land in northern Wisconsin, while Enbridge officials say the move would disrupt fuel access to millions of people. (Michigan Advance)

RENEWABLES: Illinois and Michigan take steps to ensure local opposition to wind and solar projects doesn’t impede clean energy targets by creating statewide siting regulations. (IPM News)

BATTERIES: The company planning a $2.4 billion battery manufacturing plant in Michigan says it is preparing comprehensive applications for local, state and federal environmental permits for the project. (Crain’s Grand Rapids Business)

CLEAN TECH: A clean energy startup spun out of Ohio State University raises $245 million in growth capital for plans to extract hydrogen from deep underground rocks. (Columbus Inno)

POLITICS: More than 30 Michigan state lawmakers have signed non-disclosure agreements as part of efforts to lure major economic development projects, including multiple related to electric vehicles and batteries. (Bridge Michigan)

BIOMASS: A nearly 100-year-old Wisconsin saw mill invests in a new system that can burn bark and wood chips for power and sends excess electricity to the grid. (Post Crescent)

COMMENTARY:

• An environmental attorney says Illinois utility regulators were right to require ComEd to refile a $5 billion grid infrastructure spending plan to protect ratepayers from large rate increases. (Sun-Times)
• A South Dakota ethanol executive says farmers and producers deserve the ​“major economic victory” of allowing the development of Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed carbon pipeline. (Dakota Scout)