** A judge has rejected a challenge by state environmental officials to rules issued by Delaware utility regulators regarding renewable energy requirements. The judge on Monday ruled that the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has no standing to challenge regulations issued by the Public Service Commission.
** After years of fighting their own policy battles, ethanol and electric vehicle advocates in Minnesota are tentatively banding together against a shared enemy: fossil fuels.
** A federal report says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposal to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River to boost salmon populations would destabilize the power grid.
** A proposed constitutional amendment in Ohio to ban foreign ownership of power plants and other “critical infrastructure” threatens further renewable energy development in the state, critics say.
** Wisconsin environmental groups file a legal challenge against state regulators’ approval of a 625 MW natural gas plant in Superior.
** Foresight Energy plans to close a southern Illinois coal mine that opened in 2009.
** The U.S. EPA proposes a consent decree to settle more than a decade of pollution violations against an Ohio coal plant.
** Using a procedural maneuver, a Wyoming Democrat defeats a proposal to move $12 million from the state budget to promote coal exports.
A ballot initiative that would increase taxes on Alaska’s oil industry surpassed the required signature threshold needed to appear before voters this year.
** Federal Express is installing fast chargers at 42 of its California locations to handle 1,000 new electric delivery vans.
** New Mexico continues to be plagued by oil and gas spills, particularly in the southeastern Permian Basin region where the industry is booming.
** The Interior Department said it will be another three years until it finishes its assessment of how much oil and natural gas might lie beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.