Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these bimonthly Energy News Roundups.
Community solar is still kicking in Minnesota. State lawmakers introduced a bill in March that would have ended the program, which began in 2013 and lets households sign up for shared solar projects. The language sunsetting the program made its way into the state’s energy omnibus bill — but was eventually removed after a handful of community solar champions in the Legislature and many more outside it pushed back.
Nuclear power’s comeback has reached Wisconsin, where Gov. Tony Evers signed a pair of bipartisan bills last week to identify potential nuclear plant sites and create a board to advance nuclear power technology in the state. With Wisconsin currently using six times more energy than it produces, Evers said the state must find ways to bring down energy costs and reduce its reliance on out-of-state resources. These latest developments for nuclear power in the state come less than two months after the owner of a retired Wisconsin nuclear facility announced it was exploring “new nuclear generation” there.
Also in Wisconsin, utility We Energies will keep a coal plant operating a year longer than planned. The Oak Creek Power Plant south of Milwaukee was scheduled to close at the end of 2025. Now it will stay open through the end of 2026 “to meet high energy demand periods,” the company announced late last month. State regulators in May approved We Energies’ plan to build a more than $1.5 billion gas plant in Oak Creek to help make up for the lost coal generation.
Michigan is pausing its first update to housing construction codes since 2015, which would bring a major boost to energy efficiency standards, amid a lawsuit from homebuilding trade groups. The long-delayed update was set to take effect in late August. But the homebuilding industry is arguing that the new requirements would raise construction costs by more than buyers can afford. State officials have agreed to delay implementation while the legal challenges play out.
And the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a case involving a disputed oil pipeline — though it won’t weigh in directly on the pipeline’s future. Instead, the Supreme Court will consider whether a 2019 lawsuit from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel seeking to shut Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline belongs in state or federal court. Enbridge is currently seeking permission to build an underground tunnel beneath the straits for the pipeline, a plan opposed by tribal and environmental groups.
More energy news, in case you missed it:
- Michigan is helping to pay for members of its Healthy Climate Corps to complete their terms after the Trump administration terminated the state’s AmeriCorps funding in April.
- Federal regulators said they are on track to issue a decision on the planned recommissioning of Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant by the end of July.
- A solar farm developer is seeking Michigan’s first project approval under a 2023 state law meant to accelerate renewable energy development.
- The developer of a Wisconsin solar project reached an agreement with a conservation group to protect the greater prairie chicken, a threatened species in the state.
- Regulators in Minnesota agreed to hear a complaint from the Upper Sioux Community regarding a dispute with its electric power supplier over use of a new solar array.
Catch more news at Great Lakes Now:
Consumers Energy in negotiations to sell its aging Michigan dams
Here comes the region’s first next-generation nuclear reactor
Featured image: Solar panels. (Photo Credit: Great Lakes Now)
