Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these monthly Energy News Roundups.
Ontario is moving ahead with big plans for new nuclear. Expansion of the eight-reactor Bruce nuclear site in Kincardine, on the shores of Lake Huron, would be the province’s first large nuclear power project in decades. As proposed, the project could add 4,800 megawatts of nuclear generation capacity, contribute about $238 billion to Canada’s GDP and create 6,700 permanent jobs, the province said. Pre-construction work is set to get underway, though several approvals from the Canadian government will be required before construction can begin.
Mining can proceed near northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after President Donald Trump lifted a ban imposed by the Biden administration. That’s welcome news for Twin Metals, a subsidiary of a Chilean mining company that for years has been looking to mine copper and nickel just outside the Boundary Waters. It’s less welcome news for conservation groups worried mining operations will contaminate the fragile wilderness. The resolution, the latest reversal in a yearslong political struggle over mining in the region, passed the Senate in a 50–49 vote last month before heading to Trump for his signature.
A rural, deep-red Ohio county came close last week to overturning its ban on utility-scale solar and wind. Richland County residents voted 53% to 47% to preserve the restrictions the county adopted last July. The referendum was spearheaded by a local property rights group and opposed by farmland preservation advocates. Election results show that turnout was 30%. Recent reporting from Canary Media looks into how confusing wording on the ballot may have played a role.
Environmental groups say the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of federal coal ash cleanup requirements would be especially damaging in Indiana, which has a long history of coal ash pollution and is often in the top five for states with the most coal ash sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed the first federal regulations on coal ash disposal under the Obama administration in 2015 and expanded them in 2024 under the Biden administration. Trump’s EPA wants to loosen them again.
A western Pennsylvania natural gas well is set to become a geothermal system in a first-of-a-kind pilot project for the eastern United States. The $14 million project will convert an existing Indiana County well owned by natural gas company CNX into an enhanced geothermal well that can extract heat from deep underground and bring it up to the surface, where it will be used to heat nearby buildings and generate electricity.
More energy news, in case you missed it:
- A lawsuit by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel seeking to shut down the Line 5 pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac can stay in state court, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously.
- The Michigan Court of Appeals largely upheld state rules limiting local governments’ authority over renewable energy projects in accordance with a controversial 2023 law.
- Wisconsin regulators approved special rates for data centers to protect customers served by the state’s largest utility, while a separate rate proposal was approved with criticism for a Meta data center campus.
- A major Ohio utility doesn’t have to refund customers the nearly $75 million it charged them to support a pair of coal plants tied to the largest energy bribery scheme in state history, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled.
- The U.S. Supreme Court declined to reconsider the convictions of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges for their roles in the same bribery scheme.
