Storage growth leads grid operator to consider rule changes

RENEWABLES:
• A pair of recent reports show the costs of complying with renewable energy standards in Ohio were significantly lower than previously thought. (Midwest Energy News)
• More than 20 percent of Ohio University’s total energy load is now powered by renewables. (The Athens News)

STORAGE: As the number of energy storage projects grows, grid operator MISO is developing a policy that factors such projects into tariffs. (RTO Insider)

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OIL AND GAS:
• North Dakota regulators have been directed to provide written documentation on why oil companies regularly get reduced fines in the event of oil and saltwater spills. (Bismarck Tribune)
• In what is believed to be a first for a North Dakota regulatory commission, officials vote to seize 800 barrels of oil they say a company illegally produced. (Bismarck Tribune)

PIPELINES: North Dakota regulators move closer to a vote on the state’s portion of the Dakota Access pipeline, though one commissioner recuses himself because it would pass through a relative’s property. (The Gazette)

OHIO: An Ohio manufacturers trade group says two utilities’ income guarantee requests mean customers would effectively pay twice for power generation. (Dayton Daily News)

CLIMATE: Major oil companies are still vague or unresponsive when asked about the Paris agreement’s long-term impacts on their business. (ClimateWire)

TRANSMISSION:
• Developers clear a permitting hurdle as part of a project to bring hydroelectric power from Canada to northeast Minnesota. (Hibbing Daily Tribune)
• Grid operator MISO begins its first-ever competitively bid transmission expansion project to relieve congestion in southern Indiana. (RTO Insider)

BIOFUELS: A group of biofuel trade associations files a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals asking for a review of the EPA’s ability to reduce biofuel standards. (Reuters)

***SPONSORED LINK: Join dynamic CEO Mary Powell of Green Mountain Power, renewables thought leader James Tong, Wisconsin utilities, and renewable industry experts for ​“Shaping the Utility of the Future,” Thursday, January 21^st in Madison, Wisconsin. ***

VW SCANDAL: Volkswagen executives apologize at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, vowing to ​“win back trust” in the company following last year’s emissions scandal. (Columbus Business First)

COMMENTARY: The Environmental Defense Fund says Ohio regulators should reject AEP’s ​“bailout” request in Ohio because it creates an unfair playing field for fossil fuels. (Energy Exchange)