Environmental News

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

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Gypsy moth battle opens in Duluth
The insect has defoliated millions of acres of trees over the past several decades as it's slowly migrated from the East Coast to the Midwest. Last year, it gained a foothold in northeast Minnesota along the North Shore.
The recommendations from Judge Eric Lipman, who concluded that Enbridge has demonstrated the need for the increased capacity, will now go before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
MPR Top Coast Festival: Ramez Naam & Jon Foley on global environment
Computer scientist and futurist Ramez Naam speaks with global environment expert Jonathan Foley at MPR's Top Coast Festival about the ways technology can, and can't, address our energy, climate and environmental problems. They say technological innovation is only as good as our political will and the moral judgments of humans allow it to be.
Minn. program rewards farmers who keep pollutants from waterways
A Red River Valley farming operation became the first to be certified under the Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, which rewards farmers who go the extra mile to reduce pollution.
Black flies: Everywhere, looking for a meal (that means you)
It's turning out to be quite the year for black flies. Up north, loons are abandoning their eggs. They're fleeing the insects attacking them at their nests. Black fly counts are up too in the metro area. MPR's Phil Picardi spoke with Mike McLean, who's with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District, about the matter.
Explosion of black flies forces loons to abandon nests
Flies have forced about 70 percent of nesting loons in an area of north-central Wisconsin to leave their eggs. That's more than twice the highest rate of abandonment in the past 22 years.
Ethanol producers like those in Minnesota's $2 billion a year industry are worried the EPA will effectively order a cut in ethanol production.
Currently, Xcel charges its residential customers a flat rate per kilowatt hour -- whether they are the type of person who conserves, or one who leaves the lights on all the time. But that doesn't encourage people to save energy, members of the environmental groups say.