Minnesota green bank ramps up clean energy financing

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

CLEAN ENERGY: Minnesota’s green bank will ramp up lending this year for climate and emission-reduction projects, providing a new funding source amid chaos and confusion around federal spending. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:

• Chicago officials say they remain committed to funding climate and clean energy projects despite the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration. (Inside Climate News)
• An Illinois Congress member tells clean energy supporters to make climate programs about consumers to counter Trump’s pro-fossil fuel claims. (Chicago Tribune)
• Tens of millions of dollars for electric vehicle infrastructure, clean energy projects and home energy rebates for Indiana could be jeopardy after the Trump administration issued an executive order to increase fossil fuel production. (Indianapolis Star)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• Democratic Illinois lawmakers introduce legislation requiring all state-funded pension systems to divest from fossil fuels, saying they would earn better returns as fossil fuels continue to be phased out. (Chicago Sun-Times)
• A developer files a permit request with Ohio regulators to build a gas-fired power plant to meet anticipated demand from a new data center. (Cleveland.com, subscription)

WIND: An Iowa county begins deliberating over its first wind energy ordinance that includes setbacks that would prohibit projects in a large portion of the county. (Telegraph Herald)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A large electric vehicle battery plant near Kansas City is expected to start operations this spring and ramp up to 1,000 employees by the summer. (Kansas City Business Journal, subscription)

AIR QUALITY: Pollution from transportation and industrial facilities have led to high rates of asthma in a Detroit suburb, which has distributed 10 air quality monitors across the city to give residents access to real-time air quality data. (ModelD)

UTILITIES: A Nebraska lawmaker introduces legislation to exempt residential electric and gas utilities from the state sales tax, which critics say would cost the state around $140 million in annual revenue as it faces a $432 million shortfall. (Nebraska Public Media)
SOLAR: Southern Indiana landowners grapple with land use concerns around solar projects that can also generate steady income for farmers. (WTHR)