By Marc Levy, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — More than two years after he started work on it, Gov. Tom Wolf is set to enact the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change, making Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy — but it might be a short-lived victory.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-greenhouse-gas-state-climate-step/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — As climate change bakes the planet, dozens of nations and many local governments are putting a price tag on greenhouse gas emissions that are increasing flooding, droughts and other costly catastrophes.
Pennsylvania on Saturday becomes the first major fossil fuel-producing state in the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/climate-change-pricing-carbon/
By Beth Edwards, Indiana Environmental Reporter
Some northern Indiana residents remain skeptical that communities in the area will be free of contamination from toxic coal ash, despite a renewed commitment by government agencies and one of the state’s biggest energy companies to clean up polluted sites and transition to renewable energy sources.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/indiana-residents-coal-ash-cleanup/
By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
With climate change, plastic pollution and a potential sixth mass extinction, humanity has made some incredible messes in the world.
But when people, political factions and nations have pulled together, they have also cleaned up some of those human-caused environmental problems, including healing the ozone hole, clearing perpetually smoggy air and saving many species from the brink of extinction.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-healing-ozone-hole-smog-eagles/
By Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press
Michigan’s Democratic governor wants a nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan to stay open and she’s asking the federal government to pay for it.
But the owner of the Palisades Power Plant says it’s too late — the plant will be shut down in May as scheduled.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-whitmer-federal-aid-nuclear-plant/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
On April 15, 2022, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA, IEPA, or Agency) approved a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for Williamson Energy, LLC Pond Creek Mine No.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/energy-news-roundup-ontario-natural-gas-energy-department-cybersecurity/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) — Sprawled like a gigantic swimming pool atop a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan is an asphalt-and-clay pond holding enough water to produce electricity for 1.6 million households.
It’s part of the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, which uses simple technology: Water is piped from a lower reservoir — the lake, in this case — to an upper one, then released downhill through supersized turbines.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-worlds-largest-batteries/
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has asked the state’s highest court to let the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change take effect and make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy.
The filing late Thursday in the state Supreme Court appealed a two-day old decision by the lower Commonwealth Court which, in a one-line unsigned order, barred the official publication of the Democratic governor’s regulation “pending further order.”
The regulation had been scheduled to be published on Saturday, making it official.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-governor-appeals-court-order-carbon-emissions/
By Marc Levy, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican Bill McSwain pledges to be a pro-energy governor by “turning on the spigot of natural gas.” Another hopeful, Dave White, says he wants Pennsylvania “to be the energy capital of the world.” A third candidate, Lou Barletta, says having a glut of natural gas in the ground without a pipeline is “like being in college and having a keg of beer without a tap.”
In Pennsylvania, the No.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/ap-energy-promises-face-limits/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
The lawsuit filed against Marathon Pipe Line in Madison County Court alleges multiple violations of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/weatherization-money-low-income-homes-misinformation-energy-projects/
By Suman Naishadham, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In southwestern Pennsylvania, eight locks and dams that for decades helped barges move goods along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers will in a few years also generate enough power for 75,000 homes.
Rye Development, a Boston-based hydropower company, is retrofitting the dams with turbines to generate electricity and says the upgraded structures will limit damage to the rivers’ water quality and fish.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/ap-hydropower-bigger-energy-role-less-environmental-harm/
By Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office indicated it might seek removal of a judge expected to preside over a criminal case in which he has ties to the defendant — the state’s biggest gas driller, which is charged with polluting residential water supplies in a community where residents famously were able to light their tap water on fire.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/ap-judges-driller-pollution-case/
By Kari Lydersen
This story was first published on the Energy News Network and was republished here with permission.
A two-year-old economic development partnership is helping to draw attention — and investment dollars — to sustainability projects in the Great Lakes region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/great-lakes-platform-green-projects/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
Aiming to increase diversity in wind and solar jobs, a proposed measure in the Illinois General Assembly would require more transparent reporting on the level of participation of minority-owned businesses in clean energy jobs.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/energy-news-roundup-nuclear-bill-natural-gas/
In November 2020, shortly after President Joe Biden was elected, Great Lakes Now talked with University of Detroit Mercy associate professor Nick Schroeck about the opportunities and challenges facing the president-elect.
Schroeck is an environmental law attorney and urban policy expert who has a background in transboundary legal issues between the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/bidens-first-year/
Huge breezes are commonplace around the Great Lakes, which is part of why the region makes a good location for wind turbines.
Though wind power has been utilized for centuries, it has only been harnessed as a widespread alternative energy source as recently as the 1990s.
In 2016, the United States Geological Survey began tracking wind turbines.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/wind-turbines-great-lakes/
By Anna Liz Nichols, Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan will build clean energy infrastructure and invest in green programs over the next 30 years with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 to confront climate change, a draft of a state plan says.
Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/ap-plan-draft-carbon-neutrality/
By Matthew Daly, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants, ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/01/ap-epa-dangerous-coal-ash/
By Kari Lydersen
This story was republished with permission from Energy News Network.
Coal ash will remain in the ground at the site of a closing coal plant on the shores of Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois.
Owner NRG explained its plans on Dec.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/historic-coal-ash-concerns/
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate a permit for a proposed $75 million frac sand operation in western Wisconsin, a victory for environmentalists who have been fighting for years to protect the 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of pristine wetlands.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/ap-court-frac-sand-plant/
Shipping companies and ports around the world and on the Great Lakes are launching sustainability efforts to lessen their environmental impact, combat climate change, and improve their efficiency and images. With support from the Solutions Journalism Network, Great Lakes Now Contributor Kari Lydersen is reporting the four-part series “Sustainable Shipping.”
Read them here:
Are voluntary efforts enough to improve port sustainability?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/sustainability-shipping-port-montreal-green-gateway/
Shipping companies and ports around the world and on the Great Lakes are launching sustainability efforts to lessen their environmental impact, combat climate change, and improve their efficiency and images. With support from the Solutions Journalism Network, Great Lakes Now Contributor Kari Lydersen is reporting the four-part series “Sustainable Shipping.”
Read them here:
Are voluntary efforts enough to improve port sustainability?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/sustainable-shipping-port-milwaukee-the-wind-green-energy/
By Josh Funk, Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators have proposed suspending a Trump administration rule that would have allowed railroads to haul liquefied natural gas while they take a closer look at the potential safety risks.
The rule, which was backed by both the natural gas and freight rail industries, had already been on hold because several environmental groups and 14 states filed lawsuits challenging it.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/ap-regulators-suspend-trump-rule-railway-gas/
When zebra mussels emerged as a dire ecological and economic threat across the Great Lakes in the 1990s, it was a wakeup call that the existing patchwork of international, state and federal regulations were not protecting the delicate ecosystem, the source of drinking water for millions of people.
In response, some industry leaders came together to form a voluntary sustainability certification organization called Green Marine.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/green-marine-voluntary-improve-port-sustainability/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
CenterPoint Energy recently proposed to construct two natural gas combustion turbines in place of its former coal-based plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/10/energy-illinois-clean-energy-bill-michigan-heating/
Amid wildfires, heat waves, drought and catastrophic flooding, Canada is moving ahead with its first ever national adaptation strategy to help Canadians identify and deliver on meaningful ways of adapting to the worsening effects of the climate emergency.
First announced in December 2020 and updated in mid-August, the government aims to consult widely with Indigenous groups, youth and environmental organizations to create a framework for concrete actions that businesses, governments and individuals can take to ensure the resilience of their communities.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/09/adaptation-mitigation-canada-national-climate-change-strategy/
CHICAGO (AP) — A massive energy policy overhaul aimed at making Illinois a fully renewable-energy state by 2050 cleared the Senate early Wednesday despite objections from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and groups who want more environmental and consumer protections.
Negotiations have been ongoing for years on the deal that includes a generous bailout for nuclear plants, closing coal-fired plants, investments in wind and solar energy and ethics measures in the wake of a utility scandal.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/09/ap-illinois-senate-energy-deal-governor-falls-short/
By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/08/waste-energy-tech-water-carbon-emissions/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/pfas-epa-fracking-ontario-cleanup-action-act-house/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
In a surprise announcement last Thursday, NRG said it would close its Waukegan and Romeoville coal plants, but the community impacts are unclear as “just transition” provisions remain held up in state energy bill negotiations.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/energy-investments-biden-line-3-keystone-xl-cancellation/
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed state regulators’ key approvals of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project, in a dispute that drew over 1,000 protesters to northern Minnesota last week.
A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the state’s independent Public Utilities Commission correctly granted Enbridge the certificate of need and route permit that the Canadian-based company needed to begin construction on the 337-mile (542-kilometer) Minnesota segment of a larger project to replace a 1960s-era crude oil pipeline that has deteriorated and can run at only half capacity.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-minnesota-court-approves-line-3-oil-pipeline/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Keystone XL is dead after a 12-year attempt to build the oil pipeline, yet the fight over Canadian crude rages on as emboldened environmentalists target other projects and pressure President Joe Biden to intervene — all while oil imports from the north keep rising.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-fight-canadian-oil-pipelines/
As Enbridge Energy prepares to finish rebuilding an oil pipeline across rural northern Minnesota, protesters are occupying part of the construction area and pledging a “summer of resistance” on the ground and in court.
Enbridge, which has obtained all necessary state and federal permits for the Line 3 project, says it will be finished by year’s end.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-explainer-line-3-pipeline-climate/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
State lawmakers will return to Springfield next week to take up two controversial issues that stalled in the final hours of the spring session: a statewide energy package and an elected Chicago school board.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/energy-illinois-senate-energy-plan-enbridge-protests-minnesota-solar-ohio/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
An ambitious clean energy bill appears poised to pass in Illinois before the end of the legislative session this month, with stakeholders feverishly negotiating to find common ground and hash out crucial details.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/energy-news-solar-illinois-michigan-gas-bitcoin-mining-council/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
An ambitious clean energy bill appears poised to pass in Illinois before the end of the legislative session this month, with stakeholders feverishly negotiating to find common ground and hash out crucial details.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/energy-news-solar-illinois-michigan-gas-bitcoin-mining-council/
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Sprawling wind farms located off the coast. Hydropower transmission lines that cut through some of America’s most beloved forests and rivers. Solar megaprojects of unprecedented size.
As President Joe Biden’s administration plans to fight climate change by weaning the nation off fossil fuels, these large-scale renewable energy projects are the source of conflict within a seemingly unlikely group: environmentalists.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/ap-clean-megaprojects-divide-environmentalists/
PEWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — The company whose underwater power cables were damaged by an anchor strike in Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac three years ago said Monday it was beginning to install replacements.
A ship anchor in April 2018 struck three of American Transmission Co.’s six cables, which moved electricity between the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/05/ap-transmission-company-underwater-cables-damaged-anchor/
DETROIT (AP) — For President Joe Biden to reach his ambitious goal of slashing America’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, huge reductions would have to come from somewhere other than one of the worst culprits: auto tailpipes.
That’s because there are just too many gas-powered passenger vehicles in the United States — roughly 279 million — to replace them in less than a decade, experts say.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/ap-america-gas-fueled-vehicles-biden-climate-goals/
With climate action on the state and national agenda, critics of Enbridge Line 5 warn that investing in new pipeline infrastructure undermines Michigan’s pathway to carbon neutrality. Experts say it’s not so simple.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/04/enbridge-line-5-tunnel-michigan-energy-future-or-bad-deal/
In the ongoing conflict over Line 5’s presence and future in Michigan, much of the debate has been between the Canadian energy company Enbridge, Inc. and the state of Michigan, or between Michigan environmentalists and Michigan businesses.
A recent joint committee session in the Michigan Senate heard from a third party: Canada.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/enbridge-line-5-debate-canadian-representatives-impact-economy/
If you have the good fortune to gaze at a Great Lake – any Great Lake – sometime in this strange year, you’re not likely to spot a glaring example of President Joseph R. Biden’s new emphasis on protecting the environment.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t coming.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/air-wind-solar-great-lakes-energy-president-biden/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
In this edition: Environmentalists in Wisconsin sue EPA over regulation rollback favoring coal plants, bankruptcy plan for Ohio nuclear power company upheld by appeals court, Prairie Island tribe prepares for massive investment in renewable energy, and Ford Motors to invest millions for electric vehicle construction in southeast Michigan
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
When the 2021 legislative session began, more than 75 bills related to the environment had been filed in Indiana’s General Assembly.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/energy-news-indiana-bills-ontario-hike-line-5-oversight-panel/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Detroit is well known as the automobile capital of the United States, the Arsenal of Democracy, the home of Motown and techno music, world-class architecture and building the middle class.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/marine-pollution-control-rouge-river-to-persian-gulf-oil-spill-cleanups-detroit-company/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Eric Freedman, Capital News Service
A former top-ranking Michigan official is now overseeing national energy policy — again.
This time it’s the Biden administration’s new Secretary of Energy, former Democratic Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/former-michigan-governor-leads-national-energy-policy/
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — As Indiana lawmakers debate dozens of bills addressing environmental matters, tensions are flaring over whether the state should adopt greener initiatives or step back current policy affecting water, energy and other resources.
While some measures in the General Assembly could bring reductions to Indiana’s carbon emissions and make stricter penalties for polluters, others would spur regulatory rollbacks that environmental advocates say could have long-lasting and damaging effects.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/ap-indiana-lawmakers-debate-environmental-regulation-rollbacks/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
A series of water main breaks in Joliet this week prompted a boil water order in case of cross contamination during repairs.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/drinking-water-waukesha-lake-michigan-groundwater-contamination-ontario/
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — For much of the past four years, the residents of a pair of villages along Lake Erie have been on edge over the fate of their nuclear plants, which generate enough tax money to pay for nicer schools than their neighbors.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-2-nuke-plants-1-bribery-scandal-no-answers/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/line-5-closure-upper-peninsula/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A bipartisan task force that brought together environmentalists, the energy industry and others released its recommendations Wednesday for how Wisconsin might bolster its economy while addressing climate change.
The report from the task force, which was led by Lt.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-wisconsin-climate-task-force-recommendations/
