"A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ‘s attempt to shut down an aging oil pipeline running beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, finding that only the federal government can regulate interstate pipeline safety."
The devastating 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, toxic train derailment left a legacy of illness and a town torn by competing understandings of the contamination’s aftereffects. A yearlong reporting initiative with photojournalist Rebecca Kiger and Time magazine writer Alejandro de la Garza worked to gain the community’s confidence and tell its story. Their prize-winning feature, in the latest Inside Story Q&A.
"The corruption that led to Ohio’s infamous HB 6 also torpedoed what would have been the Great Lakes’ first wind farm, the suit alleges. FirstEnergy is pushing back."
"More than 700 Illinois schools are within a quarter-mile of crop fields, yet state law doesn’t require pesticide applicators to notify them before spraying. Advocates say a new notification proposal would give educators and park staff time to move children indoors and reduce exposure."
Explore our 10th annual Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy, as we scour the beat to identify 15 top stories to put on your radar for 2026. Our updated format for the special report provides a quick read and a broad scope — with insights on climate change and environmental justice, bird and insect declines, data centers and deep sea mining, deregulation and PFAS and much more. Get started here.
"In landmark rulings last month, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered FirstEnergy’s three regulated companies to pay roughly $250 million for violations linked to the state’s largest-ever utility corruption scandal. More than $186 million of that will be refunded or credited to consumers."
For more than a century, oil and gas companies have been drilling — and abandoning — wells across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands to potentially leak pollutants into the air, water and soil. Climate and environment reporter Martha Pskowski looks at how funding and regulatory issues are impacting efforts to identify and plug these wells, and offers resources for drilling into their story.
"A recent decision by President Donald Trump to deny disaster aid to two electric utilities in rural northern Michigan could cost residents tens of millions of dollars."
"A recent decision by President Donald Trump to deny disaster aid to electric utilities in rural northern Michigan could cost residents tens of millions of dollars."
"Industrialization in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has some residents pushing for protection of the region’s celestial splendor."
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