CLIMATE: Chicago’s $188 million climate plan adopted last month includes an effort to plant 75,000 trees in neighborhoods populated by people of color and those disproportionately affected by climate change. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
• Western Michigan University begins more strategic planning to help the school achieve its carbon neutrality target. (Western Herald)
• Illinois is among the states that passed climate action policies this year, a relatively rare occurrence with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS:
• The Sierra Club and a utility trade group dispute the role of natural gas in Wisconsin in the coming decades as utilities attempt to meet net zero emission targets. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• Consumers Energy faces a $50 million lawsuit following a home explosion in Flint, Michigan last month that killed two people. (Associated Press)
• The company responsible for North Dakota’s largest oil field spill in 2014 and 2015 is given a $15 million fine and three years of probation. (Inforum)
PIPELINES: Michigan’s attorney general says it made sense “from a strategy standpoint” for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to drop the state’s lawsuit to shut down Line 5 and back a separate state lawsuit. (Michigan Advance)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Kansas regulators approve Evergy’s plan to encourage electric vehicle adoption, but they reject a proposal to pre-approve ratepayer funding for an expanded charging network. (Topeka Capital-Journal)
• More than 50 U.S. power companies form a coalition to build a coast-to-coast electric vehicle fast-charging network along major U.S. travel corridors by the end of 2023. (E&E News)
• The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will soon operate electric vehicles and install charging stations on its reservation with the help of a $6.7 million federal grant. (Bismarck Tribune)
COAL: The Build Back Better bill includes $12.6 billion to help rural electric cooperatives retire coal plants and invest in clean energy. (E&E News)
UTILITIES: Missouri lawmakers will consider a variety of energy-related bills next year, including proposals that would alter the way utilities recover costs from customers. (Missouri Times)
CARBON CAPTURE: An Illinois geologist says rock formations have the potential to store carbon for “eons of time” as proposed with two separate pipeline projects. (KCUR)