Jun. 16—Coal-fired power plants in Springfield and southern Illinois would be able to stay open until 2045 if almost all carbon can be removed from their emissions within 13 1/2 years, based on a compromise clean-energy bill proposed by the governor Tuesday. The suggestion for a compromise came from Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell on a contentious section of the legislation, which was expected ... Read More

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed the state's approval of Enbridge's controversial new pipeline, a blow to environmental groups and Ojibwe tribes trying to halt its construction. Opponents of the project, a replacement for the current Line 3, had appealed the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission's 2020 approval of a certificate of need for the $3 billion-plus, 340-mile pipeline ... Read More

For the first time, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is largely relying on digital blueprints as it finalizes plans for a major remake of Hwy. 169 through Elk River. Contractor WSB is designing the roads for MnDOT's "Highway 169 Redefine" project, and is believed to be the first firm to deliver a whole set of plans in three-dimensional digital format. "We're typically traditional, ... Read More

CLEVELAND (AP) — A FirstEnergy senior vice president was fired Thursday for her “inaction” regarding a 2015 amendment to a “purported” consulting contract with someone who was later appointed as Ohio's top utility regulator, the company announced in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Eileen Mikkelsen's dismissal makes her the sixth high-ranking FirstEnergy executive fired since ... Read More

May 26—Federal regulators have proposed penalties totaling $181,724 for a company in connection with the collapse of a power plant that killed two workers from Kentucky. The collapse happened last December at the Killen Generating Station in Manchester, Ohio, which is near Maysville. Contractors were demolishing the power plant, which had closed in 2018. The men who died were Clyde Douglas ... Read More

The City Council on Wednesday approved new zoning for the James R. Thompson Center that would allow one of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers to replace — or be built next to — the state-owned building designed by Helmut Jahn. Wednesday’s vote is the latest step in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to sell the glassy, postmodern structure in the Loop to a private developer. The vote came less than three ... Read More

Site work on downtown Milwaukee's $420 million convention center expansion is expected to begin in early July. That's according to a project update presented at a Friday board meeting of the Wisconsin Center District, the state-created public agency which operates the Wisconsin Center convention facility. The expansion will double the facility's space - giving it the ability to host two major ... Read More

MADISON - Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee declined Thursday to approve Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' plan to increase funding for housing and homeless programs by more than $70 million over the next two years. Instead, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee adopted a less robust plan that would increase funding for homeless shelters by $600,000 a year. Evers wanted to ... Read More

May 15—As the one-year anniversary of the disastrous failure of the Edenville and Sanford dams approaches, State Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, is spending a lot of time these days examining the state's Dam Safety Program. Glenn is chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), which administers the Dam Safety Program. "As soon ... Read More

NORTH UTICA, Ill. (AP) — An explosion that killed three Chicago men last week near a state park in northern Illinois may have been connected to a nearby bridge demolition project, an attorney for their relatives said. Brothers Inmer Rivera Tejada, 39, and Rafael Rivera Tejada, 36, and their nephew Guillermo Rivera Tejada, 26, were found dead May 6 near the Route 178 bridge over the Illinois ... Read More