The Great Lakes: Unprotected documents how novel rule-making, staff cuts, and dramatic shifts in funding priorities are systematically unraveling a 60-year-old program of safeguards for the region’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, habitat, and drinking water. The government’s neglect sharply increases the region’s vulnerability to water pollution, land degradation, economic disruption and harm to human health.
The AI Boom Is Prolonging Indiana’s Fossil Fuel Era, With Hidden Costs for Water
JASPER COUNTY, IND. — Growing up in the shadow of a coal plant in rural Indiana gives a child a unique relationship with the passage of time. As a little girl in the small town of Wheatfield, population 900, Barb Deardorff recognized the months by the height of the cornstalks and beansprouts which grew on…
Trump Moves to Open America’s Wildest Forests to the Bulldozer
Dawn is most memorable, the awakening hour in Bear Swamp, a 3,915-acre expanse of the Huron-Manistee National Forest in northern Michigan. Even after the somnolence of night, morning light is not nudged by the sound of anything connected to industrial America.…
When Forests Burn, Lakes Suffer
Wildfire risk is high in the upper Great Lakes, and research shows that large, scorching wildfires spell trouble for lakes in the region’s remote watersheds. The reason: Vegetation burns in the fire. Scorching, high temperatures make the soil hydrophobic, which causes…
Ethanol Was Marketed to Help Agriculture. But It Fouled Our Water and Injured Our Health.
Just like his presidential predecessors – George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden – Donald Trump has a thing for ethanol. But why? Inordinately expensive to taxpayers, monstrously polluting, and now linked to mounting cancer incidence in Midwest Corn Belt states,…
On Menominee Lakes, Wild Rice Is Coming Back. It Isn’t Easy.
MENOMINEE, Wisc. — On a cool bluebird morning, DJ Micik guides his canoe through the narrow channel connecting Little Rice Lake with Rice Lake, two of the largest bodies of water on the Menominee reservation in northern Wisconsin. Sitting behind Micik…
Illinois Fails to Pass Landmark Act Requiring ‘Responsible’ Data Center Energy and Water Use
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois lawmakers this week failed to pass landmark legislation that would have required data centers in the state to publicly disclose their water usage and adhere to a strict set of energy and environmental standards. Supported by climate…
Illinois Tightens PFAS Oversight Amid Federal Rollback Efforts
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois lawmakers last week passed a new law establishing more robust requirements for monitoring per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — better known as PFAS “forever chemicals” — in wastewater discharges at major facilities across the state. The deciding 64-34…
Ohio Needs Power For Its Data Centers. Lawmakers Want to Redefine ‘Clean Energy’ to Get It
COLUMBUS, Oh. — Lawmakers in Ohio are considering a proposed bill that would redefine the state’s consideration of “clean” and “reliable” energy to include sources that burn hydrocarbons — namely natural gas and coal — while effectively banning the development of…
Supreme Court Rules For Public Interest in Line 5 Case
In a ruling that puts vital decisions about operating the Line 5 oil pipeline back in a Michigan state court, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided on April 22 against the effort by Enbridge Inc., the Line 5 owner, to move…
Northern Michigan’s Extreme Climate Disaster
On April 7, 2026, a light drizzle began to fall from the dark clouds over the forests of Michigan’s lower peninsula. A spring rain, nothing especially unusual in a region of uncommonly clean lakes, the magnificent shorelines of two Great Lakes,…
Proposed Michigan Bill Would Tie State Wetland Protections to a Recently Narrowed Federal Standard
LANSING, Mich. — A bill introduced last month in the Michigan House proposes changing the state’s definition of “wetland” to more closely align with recently narrowed federal standards. The bill’s authors say it caters directly to residents, farmers, and developers faced…
Senate Overturns Ban On Mining Near Boundary Waters Wilderness
The U.S. Senate in April 16 voted to overturn a 20-year ban on mining on federal forest near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The vote draws Chilean-owned Twin Metals a step closer to gaining permits to open an underground copper mine…
Stalled Farm Bill, Slashed Grants Undercut Farmers’ Water Protection Efforts
More than two years have passed since the Agriculture Improvement Act — better known as the Farm Bill — expired, leaving the nation’s primary agricultural policy framework in a state of prolonged uncertainty. The bill, which steers the economics, logistics, and…
States Challenge Right to Protest Damage to Water, Land, Environment
Behold the “No Kings” protests last month. Millions of Americans in the streets opposing the Trump administration’s reckless governing principles. Thousands of communities expressing the solemn right to push back against a clear and present danger. At least for the time…
Executive Order Puts Oldest Polluting Coal Plants Back in Action
Until May 2025, utility executives like those at Consumers Energy in Michigan operated in the world of orderly oversight of electricity generation. In coordination with MISO, the regional transmission agency, and the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), Consumers Energy decided when…
EPA Reversal Opens the Door to More Mercury Pollution
The practice of reporting on the environment starts with a working knowledge of a range of scientific disciplines. One of them is chemistry. To wit: since the 1960s, when Americans and visionary lawmakers voted to hold polluters accountable for their wastes,…
Global Collapse of Migratory Freshwater Fish Drives Calls for Transboundary Cooperation
Migratory freshwater fish populations have declined by 81 percent worldwide since 1970, a collapse that underscores the urgent need for coordinated river and lake management across national borders, the United Nations warns. A report published today — the first global review…
The Great Lakes Are Wasting a Massive Source of Clean Energy
The energy system in the Great Lakes region, as in most parts of North America, is wasteful. Stupendously wasteful. Consider these data points. Two-thirds of the energy generated by the 2,100-megawatt Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, east of Toronto, comes in the…
Great Lakes States Face a Data Center Governance Gap
The rapid build-out of hundreds of AI data centers across the Great Lakes basin is reshaping rural communities, straining fragile ecosystems, and forcing states to rethink energy and water policies. More than 220 facilities are still planned across the region. But…
Great Lakes Water Funding Faces a Critical Year in Congress
WASHINGTON D.C. — With a major Great Lakes restoration program set to expire this year and infrastructure funding nearing its end, freshwater advocates traveled to the nation’s capital last week to press Congress to maintain support for clean water programs across…
A Nuclear Shift Buoyed by Billions, and the Waters of the Great Lakes
COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As a study in troubled operation, the Palisades Nuclear Plant once was ranked by the federal government as one of the four worst-performing nuclear power stations in the country. The 51-year-old facility closed in 2022, joining Big…
Ohio EPA Considers ‘Lowering of Water Quality’ Necessary for Data Center Growth
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering approving a new permit that would allow data centers across the state to discharge untreated wastewater and stormwater directly into rivers and streams, an allowance that is without precedent across the Great Lakes region. …
An Obscure Provision In FEMA’s Program To Prevent Disaster Is Making Serious Flooding Worse
LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN — Since its creation in 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been charged with protecting communities from natural disasters. Central to that mission is curtailing serious flooding, the most prevalent and severe weather threat to people and…
Combatting Agricultural Pollution: Michigan’s New Manure Management Rules
LANSING. Mich. – Because lawmakers and regulators embrace the principle that agriculture’s primary objective is to feed people, farming is a sacrosanct industrial sector in the United States. Understand that every industry in the U.S. except for agriculture is required to…
National AI Boom Hits Home as Demand for Power Surges
PLYMOUTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN — On a warm fall afternoon, dairy farmer Chris Kestell pushes through prairie brambles taller than himself, tracing a path overgrown with thickets and swarming with bees as he hikes toward a hidden waterway. Though the route is…
