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Minnesota regulators warned utility before coal ash spill

By Andy Balaskovitz

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COAL: State regulators warned a utility to take steps to prevent a major coal ash spill roughly three months before 5 million gallons of coal ash-contaminated wastewater leaked from a northern Minnesota power plant site. (KSTP)

SOLAR:

  • Solar power’s potential to help BIPOC farmers hold on to their land was among the key themes at a recent Illinois panel exploring agrivoltaics. (Energy News Network)
  • The clean energy transition is generating enthusiasm and skepticism as a utility moves forward with plans to replace a central Minnesota coal plant with a large solar and storage project. (New York Times)
  • Ohio regulators start hearings today on a proposed 800-acre solar project northeast of Columbus. (Knox Pages)
  • An eastern Michigan township considers potential restrictions on utility-scale solar projects as a developer pursues leases from landowners. (WJRT)

CLIMATE: This week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago is expected to devote some time to climate change as energy and environment groups promote their messages. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Despite recent electric vehicle job growth in Michigan, the state is seeing generally underwhelming interest in EV tech programs launching at community colleges across the state. (Bridge)

OIL & GAS: Ohio’s attorney general imposed no penalties on an oil and gas group that ran a lobbying campaign with pro-fracking letters using residents’ names, addresses and phone numbers without their consent. (Cleveland.com)

PIPELINES:

  • The CEO of the firm developing a multi-state carbon pipeline through the Midwest concedes that landowner opposition remains a major hurdle to the project getting built. (Bloomberg)
  • All eyes are now on the Dakotas, where regulators are determining whether to allow the Summit carbon pipeline. (KCUR)
  • A federal appeals court rejects Enbridge’s effort to keep a case challenging Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac in federal court, sending the case to state court where advocates say they have better chances of shuttering the pipeline. (Michigan Public)

GRID: Pending state regulatory approval, Alliant Energy could start construction next year on a first-of-its-kind energy storage system that would store gas created from liquid carbon dioxide in an ​“energy dome.” (WPR)

WIND:

  • A global wind turbine manufacturer says it will restart production and hire upwards of 100 workers at a plant in eastern Iowa. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
  • Residents in southwestern Wisconsin organize against a pair of proposed 300 MW wind projects that were contingent on the approval of a recently approved transmission line. (Telegraph Herald)

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