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Minnesota passes clean energy permitting reforms

By Andy Balaskovitz

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CLEAN ENERGY: Minnesota Democrats overcome a last-minute dispute to pass sweeping energy permitting reforms that supporters say will speed up renewable energy and transmission projects. (Star Tribune)

COAL: Environmental groups say Illinois needs to work faster to clean up coal ash pollution as little progress is made five years after a new law mandated cleanup plans and prohibited discharges into the environment. (IPM News)

BATTERIES: A federal judge orders a Michigan township to comply with a development agreement for a nearly $2.4 billion electric vehicle plant that has deeply divided the community. (Associated Press; Detroit News, subscription)

OIL & GAS:

  • An Ohio commission approves fracking leases for two companies, though a project in a wildlife area was denied because oversight requirements would have made it uneconomic. (Ohio Capital Journal)
  • Illinois-based Nicor is among U.S. gas utilities that have partnered with Habitat for Humanity on net-zero energy homes that still rely on gas-powered appliances in what critics call a PR stunt. (The Guardian)
  • North Dakota gas production jumped 7% in March while oil production dropped slightly because of severe weather, officials report. (KFYR)

NUCLEAR: Michigan is in the center of a debate about the future of nuclear energy, as state officials attempt to revive a shuttered plant along Lake Michigan as a key climate strategy. (MLive)

SOLAR:

  • The University of Michigan will spend at least $70 million to install 25 MW of solar across multiple campuses. (MLive)
  • Michigan’s second-largest city is reconfiguring a long-planned solar project on a former landfill to power the city’s district energy plant that’s switching to electric boilers. (Crain’s Grand Rapids Business, subscription)

GRID: An Iowa city partners with Iowa State University on a solar- and battery-powered microgrid that can disconnect from the broader electric grid to run independently. (Southeast Iowa Union)

BIOGAS: An Ohio agency approves a seven-year job-creation tax credit for the $100 million expansion of a company that produces renewable natural gas from food waste. (WLWT)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: General Motors CEO Mary Barra says plug-in hybrid vehicles will be a key piece of the company’s transition to all-electric vehicles. (Detroit News)

BIOFUELS: Michigan lawmakers consider offering tax credits to fuel providers that sell biodiesel as a way to jumpstart the industry there. (Brownfield Ag News)

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