Environment

Conservation group estimates PFAS cleanup in state drinking water would cost $208 million

BY: - December 4, 2023

Wisconsin Green Fire (WGF), a conservation group with a membership largely made up of former state Department of Natural Resources employees, released a report Friday that estimates the capital cost for PFAS treatment of public water systems and other sources of water would be $208 million.  PFAS are a group of man-made chemical compounds known […]

electric car charging station

Ahead of climate conference, U.S. House panel tussles over curbs on emissions

BY: - November 30, 2023

Republicans on a U.S. House panel argued Wednesday against aggressive moves to meet carbon reduction goals, saying U.S. fossil fuel companies are working to make their products cleaner. Democrats on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Minerals countered that to achieve further reductions, federal policies should be continued […]

A gray wolf (Getty Images). Endangered species hunting DNR

Wildlife conservation group files lawsuit against new Wisconsin wolf plan

BY: - November 28, 2023

A wildlife conservation group alleges the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Natural Resources Board (NRB) infringed on the group’s constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, and violated a number of state laws, when adopting a new wolf management plan last month.  The Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance made the allegations in a […]

AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generating Station in Petersburg, Ind., has been burning coal since the 1960s but will shutter all of its coal firing units over the next few years. The plant is converting some generating units to natural gas and will also host an 800 megawatt-hour battery storage system expected to come online late next year. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

New life for old coal: Minelands and power plants are hot renewable development spots 

BY: - November 28, 2023

PETERSBURG, Ind. — AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generating Station, which towers over the White River here in southwest Indiana, has been burning coal to generate electricity since the late 1960s. That era, though, will come to an end soon. Two of the power plant’s four coal-burning units have already retired and the last is planning to […]

New rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year in its latest attempt to regulate the carbon from power plants have drawn fire from some congressional Republicans, grid operators and other regulators. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Reliability v. sustainability: Inside the debate over the EPA’s proposed carbon rules

BY: - November 21, 2023

Electric reliability has been a hot topic lately — from congressional hearings to regulatory agencies and at the regional transmission organizations that run the electric grid in much of the country. The American electric grid is undergoing a major change, prodded by state and federal decarbonization policies, market forces pushing cheaper and cleaner forms of […]

now falls March 30, 2009 in Fargo, North Dakota. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Federal report forecasts the Midwest’s climate future

BY: - November 20, 2023

More ticks. More mosquitos. Less snowmobiling and ice fishing. Those are just a few of the climate impacts facing Midwestern states in the coming decades, according to the just-released Fifth National Climate Assessment. The massive, congressionally-mandated report is released roughly every five years in an attempt to track how climate change is affecting the United […]

Assembly Democrats take aim at climate change in large package of bills

BY: - November 17, 2023

Proposals that cover agriculture, schools, electric utilities and workforce training are among 20 pieces of draft legislation to address climate change that Wisconsin Assembly Democrats began circulating Thursday. “The climate crisis is real, and there is no time to waste in taking action,” said Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), the Assembly’s Democratic leader, at a Capitol […]

DNR adds 51 sites to Wisconsin list of impaired waters

BY: - November 16, 2023

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ biennial survey of surface water pollution across the state added 51 bodies of water to the state’s impaired waters list, which tracks which bodies fail to meet the state’s surface water standards.  The survey found that 80% of assessed waters meet the state’s standards, but the remaining one out […]

Wisconsin Senate votes on party lines to advance PFAS bill

BY: - November 14, 2023

Wisconsin Republican Senators voted to advance a bill to address PFAS contamination across the state despite objections from Democrats and conservation groups that it gives a pass to polluters while preventing the state from responding to contamination.  The bill has been subject to months of negotiations and attempts at compromise between both parties, conservation groups, […]

From left, a lead pipe, a corroded steel pipe, and a lead pipe treated with protective orthophosphate. Lead pipes cause health problems and drive up water bills. Photo courtesy Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmental group argues Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps disenfranchise parents of lead poisoned children

BY: - November 14, 2023

Wisconsin’s legislative maps, which are drawn to heavily favor Republicans, have disempowered parents on the North Side of Milwaukee, preventing them from pushing their elected representatives to work toward removing the lead pipes that remain in their neighborhoods, a legal brief filed on Monday by an environmental group argues.  The “friend of the court brief” […]

COMMENTARY
A child sits with a sign at Milwaukee's climate march 2019.

Political obstruction is climate destruction

BY: - October 27, 2023

In my years as a business owner, nonprofit leader and local elected official in Wisconsin, I’ve been asked to solve a lot of tricky problems by my employees, customers and constituents. I don’t always have the perfect answer, but the one thing I cannot do is stick my head into the sand.  Wisconsin, like every […]

A gray wolf (Getty Images). Endangered species hunting DNR

Wisconsin DNR Board votes to approve wolf management plan without numerical population goal

BY: - October 25, 2023

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board voted unanimously Wednesday to implement a new wolf management plan, approving the Department of Natural Resources’ decision not to include a numerical population goal over the objections of Republican lawmakers and pro-hunting groups.  The board is now entirely made up of appointees of Gov. Tony Evers, including four new members, […]