Iowa biodiesel plant closes amid RFS, tax credit uncertainty

SOLAR: Critics of new legislation in Iowa requiring external disconnection devices on customer-owned systems say it is meant to discourage distributed generation. (Midwest Energy News) 

ALSO
• Federal grants help launch clean-energy projects on tribal lands, including a 600 kw solar installation at a North Dakota College. (Bismarck Tribune)
• A proposed $60 million solar project on a contaminated industrial site in Illinois is drawing local opposition. (Southern Illinoisan)

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BIOFUEL: An Iowa biodiesel plant shuts down amid uncertainty over federal Renewable Fuel Standard and tax credits. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

WIND
• Residents are now seeking a temporary injunction against further development of a wind farm in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Background on the case here. (MLive, Midwest Energy News archives)
• Clean-energy developers in Kansas, particularly for wind, could have property tax exemptions phased out under a proposal in the Legislature. (Associated Press)
• Developers in North Dakota are revising plans for a 150 MW wind farm, lessening the project footprint and reducing the impact on endangered bird species. (Associated Press)

COAL: One employee is injured after a fire breaks out at an Xcel Energy coal plant in Minnesota. (Minneapolis StarTribune)

PETCOKE: Hundreds speak out against sulfur dioxide pollution in southeast Michigan. (The News-Herald)

TRANSMISSION: The Wisconsin Public Service Commission could vote within the next week on a proposed $900 million transmission project meant to lower rates and boost reliability. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

OIL AND GAS
• Federal regulators quietly propose rewriting national oil pipeline safety rules, much of U.S. network would be subject to extensive tests. (EnergyWire)
• As banks retreat from financing shale projects, private equity firms are stepping in. (Forbes)
• Iowa labor union campaigns in support of 343-mile Dakota Access Pipeline to transport oil from North Dakota to Illinois. (WHO-TV)
• A report says that lifting the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports would create hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the country. (Reuters)

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CLEAN POWER PLAN: Federal officials and stakeholders gather to discuss how an interstate trading market might help states comply with federal emissions rules. (EnergyWire)

COMMENTARY
• Dispelling the myth that rooftop solar only benefits ratepayers who install it. (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis)
• It’s a ​‘shame’ Ann Arbor lost out on a major solar project due to a lack of governmental cooperation. (Ann Arbor News)