Environmental News

MPR News is your source for environment news from Minnesota and across the country.

Getting to Green: Minnesota’s energy future

Getting to Green is an MPR News series that shares stories about Minnesota’s clean energy transition, including what needs to be done to get there.

Submit a question or story for Getting to Green here.

Climate Cast

Listen to Climate Cast, the MPR News podcast all about our changing climate and its impact in Minnesota and worldwide.

State legislators, Line 3 foes seek seat on body that approved pipeline
An open seat on the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is drawing interest from several notable applicants, including current and former state legislators and two leading critics of Enbridge Energy's planned Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement, a project approved by the PUC earlier this year.
Environmental groups sue state to block approval of PolyMet
Environmental groups have gone to court to challenge the state's decision to grant key permits for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota.
High stakes as international climate conference begins
The U.N. climate meeting underway in Poland is the most important climate conference since the 2015 Paris Agreement set emissions reduction goals for nearly every country on Earth.
State officials issue permit for Minntac tailings basin
State officials plan to issue a water quality permit Saturday to U.S. Steel for a massive mining waste pit on the Iron Range.
Two years after Standing Rock protests, tensions remain but oil business booms
Legal battles and local tensions persist two years after the North Dakota prairie was filled with thousands of indigenous and environmental protesters opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Fast-tracking logging on federal lands may not lessen wildfire risk
The current version of the Farm Bill includes House-backed provisions that would streamline logging projects on federal land. The administration argues logging could mitigate wildfire risk.
Urgent warnings for Minnesota in U.S. climate report
Climate change is already wreaking havoc in Minnesota, from making people sicker to threatening the wild rice crop. Those are a few of the grim conclusions tucked inside the latest National Climate Assessment.
We're already paying for the impacts of climate change, the new National Climate Assessment says. And those costs will likely go way up in the future.