"Tom and Diane Peterman tried to buy flood insurance when they moved to their retirement home on the shores of Black Lake 14 years ago but were told it wasn’t available. John Solum was told he wasn’t in a flood zone when his family bought a 1940s-era cabin there."
"More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color."
The Great Lakes region is a top steel producer, but its coal-fired steel mills are also a major source of planet-warming emissions and health-harming pollution. Climate advocates, community members and workers have been pushing to clean up these facilities for decades. Now, foreign funding offers new hope for revitalizing and decarbonizing the region’s steel industry. Canary Media’s Maria Gallucci explains.
“Groups work to identify, save and reseed areas to help the culturally significant resource thrive as climate change portends more strains.”
“Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said Friday he is pausing the state’s data center tax incentives starting in July amid a push to address concerns about electricity costs and water resources that have plagued the AI infrastructure build-out nationwide."
"A bill, newly passed by legislators, will expand the state’s capacity to enforce limits on health-harming emissions in overburdened communities."
"The DOE says the Schahfer plant is key for reliability, but repairs mean it’ll be offline for much of 2026. The grid is set to be just fine without it this summer."
"Michigan may be known as the Great Lakes state, but most of its residents have a river to thank for their hometown’s existence."
"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 House vote came just days after the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rescinding limits for select toxic PFAS compounds in drinking water — a decision that environmental advocates, and the Illinois EPA, immediately rebuffed."
"The Ohio Supreme Court overturned a permit that state officials previously granted to a massive, 6,000-acre industrial-scale solar farm and battery operation in Madison County."
