** EPA is preparing new quotas for how much biofuel must be blended into gasoline, as the administration balances competing interests from the oil and agriculture industries, Bloomberg reports.
** Boulder County, Colorado’s sheriff’s department adds a Tesla to its patrol-vehicle fleet.
** Alaska politicians denounce a federal judge’s order this week voiding approved permits for a major oil and gas project, saying it will hurt the state’s economy and send oil production overseas.
** FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee is stepping down from his post next Monday, he revealed last week. His term formally expired back in June, but the law lets him keep his seat until either a replacement is found or the year ends according to POLITICO.
** Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. are partnering to operate a soybean processing plant near Jamestown, North Dakota. The facility will supply soybean oil for Marathon’s renewable diesel plant near Dickinson.
** Portland officials are expected to vote this month on a proposal to expand a major oil-by-rail export terminal, testing the city’s 2016 zoning ordinance banning new fossil fuel facilities.
** Actress and activist Jane Fonda pays tuition for a group of Boise high school students to take university climate change classes.
** The state of Minnesota asks a federal court to block a first-of-its-kind tribal lawsuit over the Line 3 pipeline that names wild rice as the lead plaintiff.
** An Illinois family is being sued by their homeowners association for installing solar panels on the front of their home, challenging a new state law that limits HOAs’ ability to impose restrictions.
** Georgia’s solar industry has grown from virtually nonexistent 10 years ago to ninth in the country, even without subsidies and clean energy mandates, as tech companies build near renewable sources and rural communities look to create tax revenue and jobs.
** Two former North Carolina Marines are among four people charged in a plot to attack energy infrastructuresuch as transformers and substations.
