Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

"Hotly debated legislation would open the state to renewable energy projects, trumping local restrictions."

"A debate over renewable energy in Indiana is scrambling some of the usual politics of energy and the environment.

The wind industry is working with leaders in the Republican-run state government to pass statewide rules for where wind and solar systems can be built, which would allow for more development by replacing the often-restrictive rules now set at the county level.

Understandably, county leaders don’t like that.

"MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday heard arguments over Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 replacement project in northern Minnesota, which opponents are calling unnecessary due to an eventual decline in the demand for oil.

"A federal regulator has suspended the permit it issued to PolyMet Mining Corp. to fill or dredge more than 900 acres of wetland for Minnesota's first copper mine, handing a victory to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa."

"A diverse coalition of more than 370 environmental and tribal rights organizations demanded Monday that President Joe Biden act immediately to halt construction of Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a multi-billion-dollar crude oil project that the groups called "an urgent threat" to Minnesota waters and the global climate."

"Wisconsin officials shut down a planned weeklong wolf hunt in just three days after 216 of the animals were killed — 82% more than the maximum that had been set by the state."

"The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed an appeals court’s rejection of a critical air emissions permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine and sent the case back for further proceedings."

"Nearly 20% of all the wolves in Wisconsin are marked for death this week after a hunting group based in Kansas won a court appeal to rush the hunting season."

"A metal recycling plant is due to open on the polluted Southeast Side months after the same firm shut a metal scrapyard in a white, affluent part of town"

"A Wisconsin judge ordered the state Department of Natural Resources on Thursday to start a gray wolf hunt this month rather than waiting until November."