"Climate change is causing record high water levels in the Great Lakes basin only years after record lows, battering coastal communities and fundamentally changing aquatic ecosystems."
"The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Winona County’s ban on the mining and processing of silica sand, which is used in the oil and gas industry for hydraulic fracturing."
"Indiana’s coal bill is heading to the governor’s desk as legislation that would extend the life of the state’s coal-fired power plants for a year — following a seesaw battle between lawmakers over its major tenets."
"The Lake Erie Bill of Rights was invalidated Thursday night by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary, who said in an eight-page ruling that his decision was “not a close call” because he believes the citizen-led referendum — though approved by a majority of Toledo voters in a special election last year — “is unconstitutionally vague and exceeds the power of municipal government in Ohio.”
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched a hazardous waste investigation at a sprawling former oil refinery in northwestern Indiana that was shuttered in 1973 and later was the scene of a major fire."
Hundreds of U.S. dams are at risk, and the Associated Press undertook a massive two-year-long investigative reporting project to gather and sort data that would identify those presenting the greatest hazards. In this guest Reporter’s Toolbox, AP data journalist Michelle Minkoff details the news service’s painstaking process, its striking findings and the impact of its reporting. Plus, key lessons learned for other data news projects.
"Ohio wants to put Lake Erie on a new, stricter pollution diet to fight back against the toxic algae blooms that have flourished for more than a decade, environmental regulators said Thursday."
"The Indiana House narrowly endorsed on Monday a proposal aimed at making it more difficult for Indiana electric companies to close more coal-fired power plants."
"The cleanup of an industrial site in suburban Detroit from which contaminated water leaked last month will likely cost millions of dollars, officials of Michigan’s environmental agency said Wednesday."
Safety has traditionally been the key question when discussing the realities of nuclear power. But in assessing the future of the nuclear industry amid debates over its potential to help tackle the climate crisis, the latest entry in our “2020 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & the Environment” reports that there may be an equally pressing concern.
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