Indiana wants to be in charge of its own coal ash dumps
Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these monthly Energy News Roundups.
Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these monthly Energy News Roundups.
Indiana has the most coal ash sites in the country. Now it wants to be the first state in the Great Lakes region to oversee how the toxic waste from coal-burning power plants is disposed of and managed. The state’s recent application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its own coal ash permitting program, which would be the largest in the country due to the high number of coal ash disposal sites in Indiana, comes as the Trump administration loosens regulations on these sites nationally.
Ohio is making bank on its public lands. Since early 2024, the state has leased more than 20,000 acres of its parks and wildlife areas to oil and gas companies — and has made $314 million, Signal Ohio reported. Most of the money came from one-time signing bonuses for mineral rights in Harrison County, according to a Signal analysis. The practice has faced opposition from environmentalists who say the revenue from fracking under public lands isn’t worth the risk.
In Michigan, the first nuclear reactor to come back from retirement may be just a few months from its highly anticipated restart. Holtec International recently announced it had “reached a watershed moment” by completing all major restoration projects at the Palisades nuclear plant on the shore of Lake Michigan and transitioned to routine work in preparation for startup. The company said “work is being managed around the clock” on the more than 5,000 tasks left to complete.
Wisconsin is poised to say goodbye at last to downtown Green Bay’s century-old coal piles. County officials reached a deal with the coal piles’ owner last year to slowly move these remnants of the city’s industrial past from their prominent site along the Fox River. Now the county has signed a 60-year lease agreement, though it could still take years for the coal piles to be depleted. Local leaders said removal of the coal piles would open up the riverfront site for redevelopment.
And farther north, Ontario is setting its sights on oil. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently announced plans for a roughly 2,000-mile oil pipeline that would be able to transport at least 500,000 barrels of oil a day from western Canada to refineries in southern Ontario. The announcement comes after the provinces launched a feasibility study last fall and announced an agreement to develop the Northern Shield Energy Corridor.
More energy news, in case you missed it:
- Michigan’s Consumers Energy is offering to put $270 million from the sale of 13 aging dams into a fund that would cover future maintenance needs if the new owners can’t pay.
- The Ohio Supreme Court upheld state regulators’ decision to allow a fee on Ohioans’ utility bills that bailed out two unprofitable coal plants.
- Tech giant Oracle is challenging the credit rating rules Wisconsin regulators set for data center developers as part of a new “very large customer” rate structure.
- National energy developer Invenergy will redirect money refunded from four canceled offshore wind projects to gas plants in states including Wisconsin and Indiana.
- Electricity prices are surging for Rust Belt factories amid rising power demand from data centers in the region.
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