Michigan makes EV progress

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Michigan EV adoption has quadrupled over the past three years and now totals more than 85,000 registrations, though high purchase prices and repair costs, along with range anxiety, remain deterrents for buyers. (Bridge)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Indiana Gov. Mike Braun announces plans for an energy task force that will devise long-term plans focused on affordability and reliability and include maintaining coal plants. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

• Nebraska’s largest utilities plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in new natural gas power plants to meet future power demand forecasts. (Nebraska Public Media)

CLEAN ENERGY

• The Chicago Board of Education will vote on a plan to invest in energy efficiency and other clean energy projects to save the cash-strapped school district money in the long run. (Chicago Sun-Times)

• Kansas clean energy business owners push the U.S. Senate to preserve federal clean energy tax credits that they say have supported thousands of jobs and economic growth. (Kansas Reflector)

• South Dakota residents could experience $5 billion in lost income over the next decade as a result of lost jobs and higher electricity bills under President Trump’s ​“Big Beautiful Bill,” according to the American Clean Power Association. (KOTA)

• Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas is among specific lawmakers an ad campaign urges to preserve the tax credits that could advance President Trump domestic manufacturing priorities. (Topeka Capital Journal)

STORAGE

• Uncertainty caused by phasing out federal clean energy tax credits and new tariffs could cause the utility-scale energy storage market to drop nearly 30% next year, after a strong start to 2025. (E&E News)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

• A federal judge rules that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated millions of dollars of grants for environmental justice communities disproportionately affected by pollution, including in Minnesota. (Sahan Journal)

SOLAR

• An Indiana electric cooperative dispatches hundreds of sheep at a solar installation to provide vegetation management, while the sheep in turn benefit from protected areas. (WANE)

COAL

• Half of the states that are part of MISO’s grid territory oppose a federal order to keep open a large coal plant that was set for retirement. (RTO Insider)

COMMENTARY

• The Ohio board overseeing siting permits for utility-scale solar projects is heavily skewed toward fossil fuel interests that have played an outsized role in local opposition, a clean energy advocate writes. (Ohio Capital Journal)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Advocates say Massachusetts’ newly revamped solar incentive program will help ensure the industry survives the proposed gutting of federal tax credits, Sarah Shemkus reports.

• California advocates partner with utility PG&E to electrify entire neighborhoods so their gas access can be cut off together, saving time and money, Twilight Greenaway reports.