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Illinois

Illinois Put a Stop to Local Governments’ Ability to Kill Solar and Wind Projects. Will Other Midwestern States Follow?

The state recently joined New York and California in passing such laws, eliciting both support and pushback.

By Dan Gearino, Aydali Campa

Randy DeBaillie walks toward his solar panels at his farm in Orion, Illinois on Feb. 3, 2019. Credit: Youngrae Kim for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The POET Bioprocessing, a processing plant that produces ethanol in Menlo, Iowa on April 12, 2022. Navigator partnered with ethanol plants across the Midwest to collect, transport and store 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through a proposed carbon pipeline project. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Navigator’s Proposed Carbon Pipeline Struggles to Gain Support in Illinois

By Aydali Campa

3M's chemical plant in Cordova, Illinois released 73 tons of perfluoromethane (CF4) into the atmosphere, more than any other industrial facility in the county, in 2021. CF4 is 7,380 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and remains in the atmosphere for 50,000 years. Credit: Phil McKenna

A 3M Plant in Illinois Was The Country’s Worst Emitter of a Climate-Killing ‘Immortal’ Chemical in 2021

By Phil McKenna

As Flooding Increases, Chicago Looks To Make Basement Housing Safer

By Siri Chilukuri, Borderless Magazine

Tractor-trailers move along an interstate frontage road January 13, 2004 in Hampshire, Illinois. Credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images

Chicago-Area Organizations Call on Pritzker to Slash Emissions From Diesel Trucks

By Aydali Campa

Lisa Benjamin, founder of Millennium Enterprises II, stands in her office in Matteson, Illinois. Credit: Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Illinois Clean Energy Law’s Failed Promises: No New Jobs or Job-Training

By Brett Chase, Dan Gearino

Dan Hurowitz harvests produce at City Farm on Sept. 30, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

A New Push Is on in Chicago to Connect Urban Farmers With Institutional Buyers Like Schools and Hospitals

By Aydali Campa

A sign, placed by the EPA, warns people not to play on the lawn at the West Calumet Housing Complex on April 19, 2017 in East Chicago, Indiana. Nearly all the residents of the complex were ordered to move by the East Chicago Housing Authority after the soil and many homes were found to contain high levels of lead. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin Lag on Environmental Justice Issues

By Grace van Deelen

An electric vehicle charging station in Monterey Park, California on May 18, 2021. Credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Three Midwestern States to Watch as They Navigate Equitable Rollout for EV Charging

By Aydali Campa

Motorists navigate surface streets during a heavy rainfall on April 18, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Chicago Institutions Just Got $25 Million to Study Local Effects of Climate Change. Here’s How They Plan to Use It

By Aydali Campa

NRG Energy's coal-fired Will County Electric Generating Station sits along the I&M Canal on May 15, 2019 in Romeoville, Illinois. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

‘Last Gasp for Coal’ Saw Illinois Plants Crank up Emission-Spewing Production Last Year

By Brett Chase, Dan Gearino

Opponents of a metal-shredding operation have fought Mayor Lori Lightfoot since she took office almost three years ago. In this 2020 photo, demonstrators lined up near the mayor’s home. Credit: Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Mayor Slow to Act on Promises to Build Green Economy by Repurposing Polluted Industrial Sites

By Brett Chase

Power lines and power generating windmills rise above the rural landscape on June 13, 2018 near Dwight, Illinois. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Inside Clean Energy: Here Are 5 States that Took Leaps on Clean Energy Policy in 2021

By Dan Gearino

Christopher Williams of Millennium Solar Training speaks to a class about the future of clean energy in Woodlawn, Illinois, on Thursday. Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Illinois Now Boasts the ‘Most Equitable’ Climate Law in America. So What Will That Mean?

By Brett Chase, Dan Gearino

The Illinois State Capitol Building, in Springfield, Illinois on May 05, 2012. Credit: Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Inside Clean Energy: In Illinois, an Energy Bill Passes That Illustrates the Battle Lines of the Broader Energy Debate

By Dan Gearino

Pete Southerton (left) and Tom Bradshaw, of solar energy contractor Certasun, install solar panels on a Northwest Side home, Monday afternoon, May 17, 2021. Credit: Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Illinois Solar Companies Say They Are ‘Held Hostage’ by Statehouse Gridlock

By Dan Gearino, Brett Chase

Corn is harvested in this aerial photograph taken above Malden, Illinois, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015. Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Despite Capitol Hill Enthusiasm for Planting Crops to Store Carbon, Few Farmers are Doing It, Report Finds

By Georgina Gustin

The Prairie State coal fired power plant in southern Illinois. Photo Courtesy of Prairie State Generating Co.

As Illinois Strains to Pass a Major Clean Energy Law, a Big Coal Plant Stands in the Way

By Dan Gearino, Brett Chase

Pete Southerton (left) and Tom Bradshaw, of solar energy contractor Certasun, install solar panels on a Chicago home on May 17, 2021. Credit: Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

How Pay-to-Play Politics and an Uneasy Coalition of Nuclear and Renewable Energy Led to a Flawed Illinois Law

By Dan Gearino, Brett Chase

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