Northwest Indiana awaits green steel investments

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

EMISSIONS

• Northwest Indiana green steel advocates await investments in cleaner steel-making technologies that transition from coal-based processes after Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel a year ago. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• An Illinois bill to make it easier to build rooftop storage systems is likely to return in the fall veto session after resolving critics’ concerns over firefighter and residents’ safety. (Capitol News Illinois)

STORAGE

• Chicago suburb Naperville considers investing in two grid battery storage projects totaling up to 15 MW of capacity to reduce its energy use while cutting emissions. (Chicago Tribune)

WIND

• Residents push back on plans for a 150 MW wind project in central Wisconsin with concerns over noise, effects on livestock and groundwater impacts. (Wisconsin Public Radio)

DATA CENTERS

• Missouri lawmakers have yet to pass any bill regulating data centers, though that’s likely to change next session as residents’ opposition to projects builds. (St. Louis Public Radio)

• A $107 million data center center is under consideration outside Kansas City, Missouri, as a separate hyperscale project is under construction and city officials consider a 180-day moratorium on projects. (Kansas City Star)

OIL & GAS

• Unionized BP workers locked out of their jobs at a Northwest Indiana refinery picket outside the company’s Chicago headquarters urging a contract resolution. (Chicago Sun-Times)

• At least five Ohio municipalities halt underground drilling for utilities after a gas line rupture destroyed three homes and damaged three dozen more. (News 5 Cleveland)

UTILITIES

• The new chair of Indiana’s Utility Regulatory Commission says the board will remain independent after Gov. Mike Braun’s leadership shakeup. (Indianapolis Business Journal)

• Minnesota regulators approve an electric rate increase for Xcel Energy that grants consumer advocates’ request to lower fees on customers’ past-due bills. (FOX 9)

COMMENTARY

• A clean energy advocate says DTE Energy’s shutoffs still far exceed state regulators’ goals for utility companies and disproportionately harm city of Detroit residents. (Planet Detroit)

• Michigan GOP lawmakers’ attempts to roll back the state’s 2023 clean energy law would raise energy prices that the law is already helping to control, writes an official from clean energy nonprofit Ceres. (Bridge)