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.

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Climate Cast

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

Black-led nature retreat center faces pushback on North Shore
A nature-based retreat center planned outside Two Harbors aimed at providing a restorative getaway for Black, Indigenous and people of color, is receiving pushback from some local residents over concerns of noise, traffic, and other impacts on their rural “way of life.” 
Minnesota e-bike rebates: 7 questions, answered
The Minnesota Department of Revenue will accept up to 10,000 rebate applications and review them on a first-come, first-served basis. The site, though, crashed Wednesday morning after it launched. Officials say they’re working on a fix.
Smith Foundry to partially shut down operations in settlement with federal regulators
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it has reached a settlement with Smith Foundry, located in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood. The foundry, owned by Zynik Capital, has a one-year deadline to shut down its furnace and casting processes, which regulators say will drastically reduce emissions.
‘Something we’ve never seen before’: Minnesota emergency experts aid Iowans hit by tornadoes
Minnesota first responders and emergency management experts are returning home in waves after lending their time to the community of Greenfield, Iowa, where an EF4 tornado killed four people, injured dozens more and wrecked more than 200 homes.
St. Paul schools turn towards geothermal energy as Minnesota‘s climate shifts
School years in Minnesota can be hot and muggy on either end and freezing in the middle. A high school on the east side of St. Paul wrapped up its first year with a new heating and cooling system to combat climate change that draws energy from the ground.