U.S. EPA head praises Toledo’s renewable energy commitment

NOTE TO READERS: Midwest Energy News will be taking a break on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The digest will return on Tuesday, January 19.

SOLAR: Minnesota residents are quickly buying up shares in the first community solar projects being developed there, showing early signs of high demand for the statewide program. (Midwest Energy News) 

ALSO:
• U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy tours Toledo, Ohio to promote the city’s commitment to renewable energy development and, particularly, solar innovation. (Toledo Blade)
• A new industry report seeks to explain state and regional solar price variations among different customer classes, which could be valuable to utilities. (Utility Dive)
• A company begins installing thousands of solar panels on commercial properties along a main corridor in St. Paul as part of a nearly 1-megawatt project. (Monitor Saint Paul)

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OHIO: AEP’s CEO says he was initially skeptical about reaching an agreement with the Sierra Club over the utility’s income guarantee request. (Columbus Business First)

EFFICIENCY: An ordinance in Chicago that requires some building owners to report efficiency data saw a five-fold increase in participants in its second year. (Sustainable Chicago)

COAL:
• President Obama is expected to announce today a moratorium on new coal-mining leases on public land as the administration seeks to overhaul the program. (New York Times)
• A citizens advisory group in Lansing, Michigan is helping the city’s utility transition away from a large coal-burning plant. (WKAR)
• A utility spends more than $350 million to install pollution upgrades at a South Dakota coal plant, though officials are worried it may not be able to run at full capacity under new federal rules. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

WIND: Local officials in Illinois go through an hours-long process to approve more than 100 conditional use permits for a wind project spread across 14,000 acres. (Bureau County Republican)

OIL AND GAS:
• The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts the oil and gas industry is unlikely to recover until well into 2017. (EnergyWire)
• Metro Detroit residents plan to protest a local church’s plans to allow a company to drill for oil on its property. (CBS Detroit)
• A program to train laid-off oil patch workers in the Bakken area issues its first scholarship. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

POLICY: Environmental and industry groups alike are speculating what President Obama’s next directives on fossil fuels will be following his State of the Union speech. (ClimateWire)

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BIOFUELS: The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers will intervene in the biofuel industry’s lawsuit against the U.S. EPA’s decision to lower renewable fuel standards. (Biofuels Digest)

COMMENTARY:
• Independent power producers, following a tough year for business due to low wholesale power prices, may find new ways to shift costs onto ratepayers. (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis)
• Smart investments in years past mean oil patch towns in North Dakota are well positioned to weather bad times for the oil and gas industry. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Michigan lawmakers should rely on data-driven reports about the benefits of clean-energy programs as it looks to update statewide energy policy. (Crain’s Detroit Business)