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More Ohioans facing orders to cooperate with oil and gas companies

By Andy Balaskovitz

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OIL & GAS: Ohio has issued an unprecedented number of orders in recent years forcing property owners to enter agreements with oil and gas companies if most of their neighbors want drilling to occur, even as the state restricts clean energy development in the name of property rights. (Energy News Network)

GRID: Utilities start construction on the last mile of a contested transmission line across the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Iowa that has been embroiled in a legal dispute. (Associated Press)

SOLAR:

  • Minnesota House Democrats are maneuvering to restore higher community solar bill credits, which were reduced this year by state regulators, as a condition to passing an unrelated clean energy permitting bill. (Star Tribune)
  • Iowa State University researchers are experimenting with growing a variety of specialty crops around solar panels to maximize the land’s production. (NPR)
  • Illinois regulators say they take consumer protection ​“very seriously” when it comes to solar installers, though questions remain over how the state can prevent bad actors. (CBS 2)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Auto industry experts say Michigan’s electric vehicle industry is poised to benefit from new tariffs on China by blocking cheap vehicles from flooding the market. (Bridge)

AIR QUALITY: Experts say poor air quality from wildfire smoke is likely to seep indoors, making building design a key part of climate resiliency. (Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR: North Dakota officials eye advanced nuclear reactors as a potential replacement for the state’s aging coal fleet. (North Dakota Monitor)

BIOFUELS:

  • A progressive think tank criticizes efforts to scale up sustainable jet fuels as a way to reduce the airline industry’s emissions, calling it a ​“huge greenwashing exercise” and ​“magical thinking.” (The Guardian)
  • However, corn-based ethanol produced for aviation could provide a lifeline for Illinois farmers contending with lower commodity prices and growing interest in electric vehicles. (Chicago Tribune)

EMISSIONS: Iowa becomes the latest state to join a lawsuit challenging a 2023 California regulation banning internal combustion engines in medium- and heavy duty vehicles by 2045. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

POLITICS: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum emerges as a frontfronter for former President Trump’s vice president pick, in large part because of his support for the oil and gas industry. (E&E News)

COMMENTARY:

  • The latest round of wildfires blanketing the Upper Midwest with poor air quality ​“are yet another indicator of the direct and indirect effects of climate change,” an editorial board writes. (Star Tribune)
  • Indiana needs to rapidly scale up clean energy supplies to attract the next generation of manufacturers and tech companies, an advanced energy advocate writes. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

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