Great Lakes states brace for tariff impacts

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

TARIFFS

• Minnesota and Michigan can expect to pay more for gas, electricity, propane and other heating fuels within a couple of weeks as a result of President Trump’s trade war with Canada, according to state officials and other experts. (MPR News, MLive)

• Ohio utilities FirstEnergy and American Electric Power warn investors that Trump’s tariffs could delay or increase the cost of building power plants and transmission infrastructure, and decrease electricity sales if they trigger an economic slowdown. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES

• Michigan regulators set financial incentives and penalties for DTE Energy and Consumers Energy on reliability, but a ratepayer advocate says the consequences for poor service remain too small relative to the companies’ profits. (Planet Detroit)

• Decorah, Iowa, voters again reject a referendum that would have authorized the city to establish a municipal electric utility. (Decorah Leader)

GRID

• Wisconsin legislators discuss a proposal to reinstate utilities’ control over transmission projects after a 2015 federal order required states to use competitive bidding with third-party developers for interstate projects. (Daily Energy Insider)

GEOTHERMAL:

• An environmental justice nonprofit wants to tap underground heat in alleys for a multi-building geothermal network in a South Side Chicago neighborhood. (Chicago Tribune)

SOLAR

• Ypsilanti, Michigan, leaders put their support behind a planned solar project that aims to power more than 100 homes in a low-income neighborhood. (MLive)

• A new study by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers nudges the field of organic solar cells one step closer to commercial viability. (news release)

EFFICIENCY

• Ameren Illinois proposes its latest four-year energy efficiency plan, which includes money for home energy assessments and rebates for upgrades. (WSIU)

PIPELINES:

• In a pipeline company’s defamation trial against Greenpeace, a former executive testifies that political pressure from protesters led to federal permitting delays eight years ago for the Dakota Access Pipeline. (North Dakota Monitor)

BIOFUELS

• Uncertainty over federal biofuel incentives under President Trump has forced Iowa biodiesel producers to idle plants or operate at minimum levels. (Transport Topics)

COMMENTARY:

• We Energies’ push to build new gas plants is an unnecessary gamble that threatens to lock in high energy costs and emissions and burden Wisconsin ratepayers for decades, an environmental advocate writes. (Wisconsin Examiner)

A union worker in Michigan writes that Congress needs to defend federal clean energy tax credits to help American manufacturers compete with China. (Macomb Daily)