Energy
What the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act means for Wisconsin
President Joe Biden is coming to Wisconsin this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on Aug. 16, 2022. Through the IRA, investments in climate, justice, regenerative agriculture and clean energy will help mitigate climate pollution in the U.S. by an estimated 40% by the end […]
Federal regulators approve new rules to ease power connection backlogs
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday finalized long-awaited new rules intended to reform how power generation projects get connected to the electric grid, seen as a major step in smoothing the path for thousands of mostly renewable power projects currently waiting to plug in. “This rule will ensure that our country’s vast generation resources […]
Democrats push more resilient, lower-carbon infrastructure at U.S. Senate climate hearing
The changing climate is hurting infrastructure and the national economy, members of a U.S. Senate panel and experts said Wednesday. Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee agreed at a Wednesday hearing on the need for more resilient infrastructure that could withstand the pressures of a changing climate. They also agreed speeding […]
Tribal leaders, environmental advocates decry Enbridge appeal of Line 5 ruling
Canadian energy giant Enbridge has appealed a federal court ruling in Wisconsin. In a June 16 ruling, a federal judge in Wisconsin ordered Enbridge to shut down its Line 5 pipeline that runs through Michigan within three years and pay more than $5 million in profits to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. […]
Thanks to federal tax credits, it’s boom time in the Midwest for carbon dioxide pipelines
Thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines planned in the Midwest have been spurred, in part, by a major expansion of federal tax credits in Democrats’ 2022 climate law. That could lead to billions of dollars per year in federal tax credits benefiting the powerful Midwest ethanol industry, even as the proposals create intense conflicts […]
Toxic mercury is a real summer fun buzzkill
Summer fun is underway in Wisconsin. As the outdoor recreation season heats up, the state is fresh off a record-breaking $23.7 billion tourism season in 2022. That means hundreds of thousands of visitors every year are breathing our air, drinking our water, and eating our abundant fish. It’s not all fun and games, of course. […]
Statehouses debate who should build EV charging networks
Though they only make up a fraction of cars and trucks on the road now, many projections — from Wall Street firms, trade groups and automakers themselves — predict an imminent surge in electric vehicles over the next decade. S&P Global estimates that the nearly 2 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today will grow […]
Tribe has mixed reaction to federal judge’s Line 5 shutdown order
Leaders of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on Monday welcomed a federal judge’s order to Enbridge Energy Co. to shut down its line 5 in Northern Wisconsin, but criticized the order’s three-year timeline. “The Band appreciates the Court putting an end to Enbridge’s flagrant trespass and disregard for our rights,” said Mike […]
Legislature bottles up vaccine changes; Senate passes bills to protect fossil fuels
Republican lawmakers blocked the state health department from updating childhood vaccination rules Wednesday, using procedural maneuvers that did not require a vote in either the Senate or the Assembly. Both bodies referred to their health committees bills that would prevent the Department of Health Services (DHS) from implementing the rules that it proposed earlier this […]
Decarbonization ambitions ignite debate over mining, permitting
The decarbonized, electrified future envisioned by the Biden administration, state governments, automakers, utility companies and corporate sustainability goals depends to a huge degree on minerals and metals. Lots more lithium will be needed for car and truck batteries, as well as the big banks of batteries that are increasingly popping onto the electric grid to […]
Western lands fight erupts over Bureau of Land Management’s conservation proposal
One thing opponents and proponents of a recently proposed U.S. Bureau of Land Management rule agree on: It would be a major shift in how the agency manages nearly 250 million acres of federal lands. The rule would allow for conservation leases, similar to how the agency auctions off parcels of land for mining, livestock […]
Overhaul federal permitting as part of the debt limit deal? Not as easy as it sounds.
Congressional leaders negotiating a deal to avoid a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt are talking about including an overhaul of how the federal government reviews projects for their environmental impact. There is bipartisan support for changes to the lengthy environmental approval process among climate-minded Democrats eager to speed construction of renewable energy projects, as […]