"American Municipal Power, an Ohio nonprofit utility, will permanently retire its Richard H. Gorsuch Station coal-fired power plant near Marietta, Ohio under a settlement to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act."

"'NUMBY' -- Not Under My BackYard. That's what Greenville, Ohio, residents told the U.S. government when it wanted to bury global warming emissions under the town."

"More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life, according to data compiled by city health and education officials."

Native Americans in Michigan are trying "to stop an international mining giant from destroying the site where Ojibwa ceremonies have taken place as long as elders can remember."

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a legal request by Michigan aimed at keeping voracious Asian carp out of the Great Lakes where they are considered a threat to fisheries."

"Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. ...Then, in January 2009, Lyondell Chemical Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based petrochemical giant argued in court that as it reorganized, it could avoid what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were about $2.5 billion in cleanup costs...."

"The Supreme Court on Monday rejected another request by the state of Michigan for an order to close two Chicago-area waterway locks to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes."

"With just five words quietly slipped into legislation, Illinois lawmakers are moving to include tire burning in the state's definition of renewable energy, a change that would benefit a south suburban incinerator with a long history of pollution problems."

"A federal judge has sided with a Midwestern energy company, agreeing to dismiss allegations of Clean Air Act violations at five Illinois coal-fired power plants and partially dismiss claims of violations at a sixth plant."

"Illinois is moving to phase out the use of perchloroethylene, or perc, a common dry-cleaning chemical linked to cancer, liver damage and neurological problems."

"Bipartisan legislation that promises the largest federal investment ever to clean up the Great Lakes -- $650 million annually for the next five years -- has been introduced in the Senate and in the House to applause from environmental groups."
 

"Proposals to block Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes have largely focused on the costs and inconvenience of closing off Chicago-area waterways into Lake Michigan. But now business and environmental groups are exploring a possible upside: a broadly based infrastructure investment that would benefit much of northern Illinois."

"In the early 1980s, the cancer deaths of four little girls — whose bodies were so tiny they could fit in shoe boxes — forced Hazel Johnson to shift the focus of an organization she'd recently founded."

"The U.S. arm of chemical giant LyondellBasell is in negotiations to settle its environmental cleanup liabilities — which include the Kalamazoo River Superfund site — with the U.S. government, according to a company spokesman."

"The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species."