The Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) approval of $10.3 billion for 18 high-voltage transmission lines in the upper Midwest could pave the way for more than 50 gigawatts in renewable energy to be added to the grid and help decarbonize the energy sector.
The Bureau said it received 198,111 public comments. Most of these were form letters, opposed or supportive of mining. Only 2,221 were “original, unique responses,” the Bureau said.
The ruling affirms the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, but it takes away the federal agency’s most powerful and cost-effective tool to regulate the nation’s largest stationary sources of greenhouse gas pollution.
While Northern Metals was operating, the zip code of that area, 55411, had the highest rate of asthma hospitalizations in the state, according to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
In total, the deal struck over the energy budget would have spent about $46.5 million from the state’s general fund over the next three years and another $36 million from the Renewable Development Account
Though most often caused by people, wildfires are driven by hard-to-predict factors that connect ecology, meteorology, geography and climate change.
Minnesota is at the northwestern edge of skunk cabbage range, and it grows only in moist swampy lowlands, the kind of places where the coldest and densest air of the night settles out and intensifies its chill.
While ideal canopy cover is around 45 percent, according to the Metropolitan Council, different parts of the Twin Cities fall far above or below that, with neighborhoods that are whiter and wealthier tending to have more trees.
The state has found that neighborhoods with mostly residents of color had five times the rate of asthma emergency room visits as majority white areas.
Metro Transit idled its first batch of electric buses due to mechanical and charging problems. They’re now back in service, along with a plan to convert almost 12% of its fleet to electric models over the next five years.
Talk about unfriendly skies.
The Minnesota DNR has records on ice out going back to the 1800s for some lakes.
New research from the University of Minnesota suggests wakesurf boats would need to run at least twice as far from shorelines, docks and other lake-goers for their waves to have the same impact as other common recreational boats used for sports like tubing, waterskiing and wakeboarding.
The ruling wasn’t a total victory for mine opponents, however. The court ruled in favor of PolyMet and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on several other issues.
Talon Metals Corp. wants to build an underground mine that would operate for nine years and primarily extract nickel, but also some copper, cobalt, platinum group metals and iron.
It’s not just the social relations that are icy.
What to know about where the $1 billion proposal stands today — and what’s in store for PolyMet in the coming year.
Wednesday’s storms even produced a tornado in Southern Minnesota — something that has never been recorded in the state in December.
Life in the resistance camps is difficult, but activists say important work remains.
