FRACKING: As communities struggle to stay ahead of the fracking boom, a national environmental group steps in to offer legal assistance. (Midwest Energy News)
CONGRESS: A Senate energy bill drops efficiency mandates to appeal to conservatives in the House, and 47 House Republicans write a letter to Speaker John Boehner calling for an end to the wind tax credit. (The Hill, Reuters)
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POLITICS: A new poll finds the majority of undecided voters think the president and Congress should be doing more to fight climate change. (The Hill)
BIOFUELS: A highly-publicized Minnesota isobutanol plant will go back to producing ethanol, as another ethanol plant in the state shuts down amid high corn prices. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Toyota scales back its electric car ambitions; Tesla unveils a solar powered high-speed charging station it plans to deploy nationwide; and despite media narratives that the car is a flop, the Chevy Volt outsells nearly half of all U.S. car models, including most hybrids. (Reuters, Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor)
TRANSPORTATION: A plan to restripe a Des Moines street to reduce accidents turns into a high-profile political issue because the project also includes bike lanes. (WHO-TV)
NATURAL GAS: An Ohio company finds a niche converting fleet vehicles to run on natural gas, and officials in Holland, Michigan hear from residents questioning a plan to convert the city’s coal plant to natural gas. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, Grand Rapids Press)
POLLUTION: A Wisconsin town faces long-term consequences in the aftermath of a gasoline pipeline spill earlier this year. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
NUCLEAR: Funding for research into small modular reactors also hangs in the balance as Congress fights over debt. (Greenwire)
MEDIA: PBS ombudsman Michael Getler says a NewsHour segment giving significant airtime to a climate science doubter was “badly handled” but “not the end of the world.”
COMMENTARY: The Lawrence Journal World says Kansas lawmakers should support the wind tax credit; and Katie Fehrenbacher, who did her own series on data center energy use, says a recent New York Times report on the subject is valuable but fails to account for recent innovations. (Lawrence Journal World, GigaOM)
