New Poll: American Voters Support Federal Investments in Electric Vehicles Broad, Bipartisan Support for EV Investments and Incentives that Lower Costs, Expand Access, and Help the U.S. Beat China in the Race for Auto Manufacturing WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new bipartisan national poll conducted by Meeting Street Insights and Hart Research finds broad public support …
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A large wildfire in Green Lake County has been contained. An earlier wildfire in Waushara County covered about 830 acres. (Wisconsin DNR photo)
A 720-acre wildfire that erupted Monday in the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area of Green Lake County has been contained, according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The so-called Big Island Fire has caused at least two residences to be evacuated, with six structures threatened by the fire, but not lost to it, according to the DNR.
Six DNR engines, air patrol, and low ground units from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are assisting along with other local agencies. The cause of the fire is under investigation, and the fire is burning on state and private lands. Six homes were saved as well as other buildings, and no structures were lost, nor were there injuries reported, according to the DNR. Although the fire has been put out, smoke is still lingering in the area, and an investigations of the cause of the fire cause is ongoing.
The White River Marsh State Wildlife Area is a 12,000-acre property containing open marsh, swamp hardwoods, wet meadows, upland prairie, oak savanna and shrub carr. The area is favored by hunters for the small game and birds. The marsh was studied by Aldo Leopold in the 1940s and later recommended for conservation purposes.
Wisconsin is already having an active wildfire season, which the DNR has called unusual and early. More than 223 wildfires have burned nearly 1,400 acres in Wisconsin already this year. In late February, a wildfire in Jefferson County burned about 95 acres, including 6.4 acres in the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The fire was worsened by dry conditions and high winds, but firefighters were able to contain the blaze.
The larger fire in Green Lake County comes as much of the Midwest experiences extreme weather. At least 40 people died this week after tornados ripped through communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Storms have also devastated towns and cities in the southern U.S.
Climate scientists have long warned that more frequent and intense extreme weather will occur if carbon emissions aren’t lowered. In 2025, the world is expected to exceed the 1.5 degrees celsius limit researchers warned would cause the effects of climate change to worsen.
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Where do people move when they’re displaced by climate-fueled natural disasters? A climate journalist joins WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” to explain what people get wrong about “climate havens.”
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President Trump is pushing federal agencies to expand timber harvests. He issued an executive order March 1 ordering the secretary of the Department of the Interior, the agriculture secretary and the chief of the United States Forest Service to come up with plans to increase logging, citing a goal to protect “national and economic security.” Trump also increased timber sales during his first term.
The U.S. Forest Service is already set to increase the number of trees it harvests to one of the highest levels since 2019, a result of Biden-era policies.
But advocates argue that we need trees now more than ever and that this increase in timber harvest doesn’t make sense. The Forest Service is facing a lawsuit challenging the timber target policies that they say put the climate at risk.
Advocates say the agency should protect mature forests with trees such as red oaks, which play a crucial role in storing and sequestering carbon. A single tree can store as much as 28,000 pounds of CO2 in its lifetime, the equivalent of annual emissions from generating electricity for one to two American homes.
The Forest Service routinely logs in national forests – it’s part of its standard management plan. In a 2022 report to Congress, the agency said it would increase logging in the east, south and Pacific Northwest. The eastern and southern regions, covering all national forests from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic, have historically been logged the most.
The pandemic disrupted the agency’s plan to increase timber harvests. The agency is increasing its harvest to 4 billion board feet in 2026, said Spencer Scheidt, staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. That’s “enough lumber to circle the globe more than 30 times,” according to the law firm.
National Forest Service spokesperson Wade Muehlhof said in an email that the service has stepped up its forest management efforts over the last 15 years. But the volume sold on the private market has fluctuated.
Muehlhof said reducing wildfire risk has contributed to the increase in the number of acres logged, but a decrease in volume sold. Other factors causing the timber targets to decrease recently included “increased operating costs, litigation, wildfire, flat budgets, and reduced capacity.”
The Forest Service was established by Congress to provide timber for the nation’s benefit and was later directed to broaden its management scope to include additional multiple uses and benefits.
Each year, the Forest Service’s Washington office assigns timber targets to its nine regional offices. It's then handed down to individual national forest units, which then develop projects to meet those goals. The national forests then set up timber sales to private companies.
But as the world warms, and the impacts of climate change worsen, advocates say the Forest Service has never “accounted for the aggregate carbon effects of actions taken to fulfill its timber targets,” according to the complaint in the lawsuit.
Muehlhof confirmed the agency “does not account for the aggregate carbon effects of actions when setting its timber targets because it upholds a carbon stewardship posture and does not manage for carbon.”
Advocates pointed out that the Forest Service has a legal obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to assess the environmental impacts of its projects. NEPA has twin aims, requiring agencies to consider the environmental impacts of proposed actions and inform the public of how those impacts factored into their decisions.
But many Forest Service projects receive exclusions, allowing certain projects to skip the more in-depth environmental reviews because they’re considered to have little or no impact on the environment.
Three Forest Service projects named in the lawsuit, including national forests in the east and south, have gone through environmental assessment per NEPA, which requires assessing carbon effects of proposed projects. But advocates said the Forest Service failed to comply with the federal regulation because it underestimated the carbon effects of these projects when setting timber targets.
Trees are an incredibly effective carbon sink, removing CO2 from the air and sequestering it for generations, if left alone. Hardwood trees – such as oak and hickory, commonly found in many states east of the Mississippi River – typically store more carbon than softwoods, like pine.
Recent research shows that aging forests in the region have great potential for carbon storage, which can increase even further as they mature.
Most forests in the Central Hardwoods Region, which stretches from Missouri to West Virginia, are second-growth, having been logged at least once over the past two centuries. Only a handful of these forests are truly old-growth, with trees older than 150 years and minimal human disturbance over the last several decades.
During westward expansion, the Midwest experienced significant deforestation as settlers, farmers and logging companies cleared forestlands over several decades. This clearance was driven by the need for agricultural land, timber resources and urban development, leading to profound changes in the region’s landscape.
“Even the large, mature forests you see today in the Ozarks are not the original forests that existed 200 years ago,” said Michael Bill, Missouri’s state forester.
Older forests capture CO2 more slowly, but are crucial for carbon storage and continue to play a significant role in locking up carbon as they grow.
Advocates are concerned that old-growth forests will be at risk if timber targets increase. Josh Kelly, resilient forests director for MountainTrue, an environmental organization based in North Carolina and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Forest Service, explained that the targets are measured by volume rather than acres and could effectively encourage cutting older, bigger trees, which store the most carbon.
The Biden administration proposed amending all forest land management plans in 2024 to protect old-growth forests across the entire National Forest System, which spans 43 states. The proposed plan, called the National Old-Growth Amendment, aimed to prohibit commercial logging on nearly 25 million acres of old growth. But ProPublica found it has allowed the Bureau of Land Management to cut old-growth trees at a faster rate than the previous decade.
The Forest Service withdrew from the plan in January, and environmentalists see an opportunity to protect old forests but remain cautious, given the likelihood that the Trump administration will continue to increase timber sales. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a statement that the agency has gained “important insights that can help to guide our future stewardship of these special forests.”
Ryan Talbott, conservation advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said increased timber targets contradict the plan to protect old-growth forests. “On the one hand, you’re telling the public we’re going to protect and recruit old growth, and then on the other, you’re telling … the regions we need to increase logging,” he said.
“This is a really easy way to actually combat the climate crisis if we just allow trees to grow and continue to grow and not cut them,” Talbott added.
About two-thirds of the carbon storage in forests happens underground, not in the trees, research shows. But when trees are cut down, the carbon gradually reenters the atmosphere.
MountainTrue advocate Kelly said the Forest Service puts too much emphasis on cutting timber. The main problem is that “it’s elevated above other goals, and it’s something that forest leadership is evaluated on in their performance reviews annually,” he said, adding he believes some of the organization's records requests to the Forest Service support this. The Forest Service did not respond to this claim.
MountainTrue’s goal isn’t to stop timber harvest, but to ensure a “balance” between logging and the risk of exacerbating climate change, Kelly said.
He said the lawsuit only applies to the east and south regions under the Forest Service, adding that “some of the timber harvests happening out west (are) legitimate and needed to reduce wildfire risk.” In the complaint, the plaintiffs asked the court to stop the Forest Service from offering any more timber sales for fiscal year 2024 in the eastern and southern regions “excluding harvests necessary to mitigate wildfire risks.”
In a response to the lawsuit in May, the Forest Service didn’t address the concerns about carbon storage and sequestration; instead, it claimed that the legal challenges didn’t target any specific, final decisions made by the government that the court can review.
Caroline Pufalt, with the Missouri chapter of the Sierra Club, said excessive logging can greatly affect wildlife habitats because it changes how much sunlight an area is exposed to and how quickly water flows through the land. Trees act as natural water regulators. Their roots help to absorb and retain water, allowing it to slowly seep into the ground rather than running off immediately.
“If you were an amphibian … standing around on the forest floor and knew where your little wet areas were likely to be, they would not be there again for … a good number of years,” she said.
Eventually, Pufalt said National Forests should “forget about the timber target” and focus on managing forests based on ecological principles. While timber production would still occur, it would be balanced with ecological considerations, potentially resulting in reduced timber yields but healthier, more resilient forests.
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. Wisconsin Watch is a member of the network. Sign up for our newsletters to get our news straight to your inbox.
The Forest Service is cutting down more trees despite their ability to capture carbon is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Payne believes education and political engagement are crucial to shaping the future of conservation. Scientific knowledge alone, he argues, is not enough.
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Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner
Just three months into 2025, at least 151 wildfires have burned nearly 430 acres across Wisconsin, at the time of this writing. A lack of late-winter snow cover, drought conditions throughout the state, and high winds have created the perfect conditions for fires, which can quickly spread out of control.
One of those fires, contained in late February by firefighters in Jefferson County, burned approximately 95 acres, including an estimated 6.4 acres in the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Palmyra Fire Rescue was dispatched after reports of a large fire in the woods, near a cemetery, the fire department said in a press release. When firefighters arrived, about 20 acres of a grass field was on fire.
Due to winds that reached 20 miles per hour with wind gusts of 35 miles per hour, the fire spread rapidly. Backup support came from Sullivan, Kettle Moraine, Rome, Western Lakes, Ixonia, Jefferson, Johnson Creek, LaGrange, Vernon, Fort Atkinson, and 14 other jurisdictions as well as the Salvation Army Rehab Unit to contain the blaze. The Palmyra Fire Rescue press release states that ATV’s and bush trucks were deployed, and a command post was established to help coordinate the effort. No injuries were reported.
Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, a Palmyra Fire Rescue spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner that the cause may never be known. Often with these types of fires there’s not enough physical evidence to establish a cause, the spokesperson wrote in an email. However, a wildfire management dashboard maintained by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports most of the wildfires this year have been traced back to debris burning.
Catherine Koele, a veteran wildfire prevention specialist with the DNR, said in an email message that the wildfire “is rather unusual for this time of year.” In Wisconsin, “our traditional wildfire season is in March after the snow melts and prior to vegetation fully greens up,” Koele said. “But, anytime the ground is not completely snow-covered, we are prone to wildfires when vegetation is cured.”
Brian Lemke, a property supervisor for the Kettle Moraine’s southern unit, said via email that the burned portions of state forest were “all part of a pine stand close to our horse trails and across the road from our horse campground.” However, Lemeke said the fire did not affect trails or enter the campground.
“The pine area has been marked and sold as part of a forestry thinning,” Lemke said, with the harvest designated for paper mills. “Generally fire-scarred trees are not suitable for paper mills, but I haven’t heard from our forester if the timber contract will be amended yet.”
This year trends are continuing that contributed to fires in the past. Jan. 3, 2025, was the driest January day in Wisconsin since 1895, and 3.3 million Wisconsinites now live in drought areas, according to a U.S. government drought monitor. No Wisconsin counties have received drought disaster designations from the federal government, however.
Wildfires have become more frequent in recent years in Wisconsin, and across the country. In 2023, an 830-acre wildfire attacked structures and debris in Waushara County, burning an area of pine and mixed hardwoods. Gusty winds and drought conditions also contributed to that fire, as well as the erratic behavior of the fire itself. At the time, the DNR reported that although the number of fires that year were comparable to previous years, fires were burning larger swaths of land.
Massive wildfires in Canada, which caused thousands of Canadians to evacuate. also caused clouded skies in Wisconsin and sharp dips in air quality that year.
Much of the wildfire activity in 2023 was attributed to climate change. With carbon dioxide levels at their highest in history – carbon emission levels in 2025 are expected to exceed the 1.5 degrees celsius limit — climate scientists have warned the effects of climate change are likely to worsen.
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We Energies has invested in renewable energy such as this solar farm, yet it continues to push for new gas-powered plants. Columnist John Imes argues that these proposals would set Wisconsin back, delaying progress toward a smarter, clean energy future. (WEC Energy Group photo)
Wisconsin stands at a critical energy crossroads. We Energies’ plan to build massive new methane gas plants is a costly misstep that threatens to lock in high energy costs, undermine clean energy goals, and leave ratepayers footing the bill for outdated infrastructure.
At a time when clean energy and storage solutions are proving to be more reliable and cost-effective, doubling down on fossil fuel dependency is a financial and environmental mistake Wisconsin simply can’t afford.
We Energies has publicly committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Yet, its proposed gas plants move in the opposite direction — locking in long-term fossil fuel reliance when cleaner, cheaper alternatives are available.
One of the key justifications for these plants is the anticipated electricity demand from data centers. However, rapid advancements in AI-driven efficiency — such as DeepSeek — could dramatically cut data center energy consumption. If We Energies locks in billions for gas plants just as these efficiency gains accelerate, Wisconsin ratepayers could be left footing the bill for infrastructure that is no longer needed. Instead of overbuilding based on outdated projections, Wisconsin should prioritize flexible, adaptive energy solutions that can evolve with technology.
If Wisconsin continues to lag in clean energy, it risks losing business investment. Major corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have committed to 100% carbon-free energy by 2030. We Energies’ push for new gas plants directly contradicts these corporate sustainability goals, which could drive investment out of the state.
Rather than doubling down on fossil fuels, Wisconsin should implement on-site demand response incentives for large energy users—reducing peak demand without costly new gas infrastructure.
We Energies’ push for new gas plants isn’t just unnecessary — it’s an economic gamble that could burden ratepayers for decades. Natural gas prices remain volatile due to global market instability, making long-term reliance on gas a risky bet for Wisconsin’s energy future.
Meanwhile, states across the Midwest are rejecting new gas plants in favor of renewables, battery storage and energy efficiency. If Wisconsin fails to follow suit, residents and businesses could face skyrocketing energy costs and stranded fossil fuel assets that quickly become obsolete.
Rather than allowing utilities to dictate energy policy, Wisconsin must take a more strategic approach. Other states have already adopted comprehensive energy transition plans that prioritize renewables, storage and grid modernization. Without a coordinated strategy, Wisconsin risks falling behind — leaving businesses and consumers to bear unnecessary costs.
The recent GreenBiz 25 conference, where more than 2,500 sustainability professionals gathered, underscored a key reality: Businesses are proving they can “do well by doing good.” Companies are cutting energy use, reducing emissions and making strategic clean energy investments that align with both business and environmental goals.
Despite political resistance, responsible businesses are stepping up. But they can’t do it alone — Wisconsin policymakers must work with business leaders to create a regulatory environment that supports clean energy innovation rather than hindering it.
The outdated notion that natural gas is the only way to meet peak demand is being disproven across the country. Texas, California and even Alaska are deploying large-scale battery storage systems to replace gas-fired peaker plants. Battery storage costs have fallen 90% over the last decade, making it the clear economic winner over new fossil fuel generation.
Before committing billions to new gas plants, Wisconsin should first maximize cost-effective battery storage—proven technology that reduces emissions while keeping electricity rates stable.
Instead of building expensive new gas infrastructure, Wisconsin should follow the lead of other states that are repurposing existing fossil fuel plants into clean energy hubs. By investing in solar, wind, and battery storage at existing power plant sites, Wisconsin can leverage existing grid connections and transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy system.
This “clean repowering” strategy allows for a smoother transition while maintaining grid stability—without saddling ratepayers with the cost of unnecessary new gas plants.
Wisconsin has a historic opportunity to lead the Midwest in clean energy innovation. But We Energies’ gas expansion plan is a step in the wrong direction.
Investing in clean energy solutions creates jobs, lowers costs and aligns with corporate sustainability goals. Locking in new gas plants while battery storage and renewables continue to outpace fossil fuels is an expensive mistake Wisconsin can’t afford.
The choice is clear: Do we cling to outdated, expensive fossil fuel infrastructure, or do we embrace a smarter, more resilient clean energy future?
The answer should be obvious—for our economy, our environment and the future of Wisconsin.
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Two early-career scientists from Wisconsin were terminated from the Midwest Climate Hub as part of the Trump administration's massive cuts to the federal workforce, leaving them — and their research — in the lurch.
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Warm winters and rising performance costs are driving Ashwabay Alliance to restructure operations this year.
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Peat bogs sequester a massive amount of the Earth’s carbon dioxide. But even as scientists work to better understand bogs’ sequestration, the wetlands are under threat.
On a cold winter afternoon, naturalist and educator Mary Colwell guided visitors on a chilly tour of the Volo Bog Natural Area in northern Illinois.
Crouching down from a boardwalk that runs through the wetland, Colwell pointed to one of the stars of the tour: sphagnum moss. With her encouragement, the group touched the little branch-like leaves of the pale green moss growing at the base of a nearby tree.
“Then in warmer weather, this is so soft,” Colwell said. “It’s unreal.”
Bog ecosystems are some of the most efficient carbon storage ecosystems in the world. They cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface, yet hold up to 30% of global carbon.
The bog’s keystone species, sphagnum moss, plays a key role in its storage capacity. Sphagnum acts like a sponge — it holds up to 20 times its weight in water.
“Sphagnum moss itself is incredible,” Colwell noted. “It’s very slow-growing.”
It grows so slowly, in fact, that it can take thousands and thousands of years for a peat bog to develop. Volo Bog started to form from a glacial lake more than 6,000 years ago. It’s still encroaching on the center of the lake, called the “eye” of Volo Bog.
But while bog ecosystems provide habitat, filter water and store carbon, they have been disappearing for decades. Wisconsin has lost half of its wetlands. In Illinois, more than 90% of wetlands have been lost. There are about 110 million acres in the United States, with more than half in Alaska — but nearly 70% have been drained and developed over the past 100 years.
Scientists think sphagnum moss may hold important lessons about carbon dioxide sequestration, but there’s much they don’t know.
Sona Pandey is the principal researcher at the Danforth Plant Science Center in the St. Louis suburbs and is part of a team researching sequestration and bogs.
“The first time I saw a peat moss under the microscope I just literally fell in love with it,” Pandey said. “That’s the only way to describe it. It’s beautiful to look at.”
Pandey’s research team is growing moss in a lab, studying its DNA, and trying to figure out how it is threatened by climate change — and how it could be a solution.
Moss excels at storing carbon. It thrives in waterlogged, acidic conditions. It doesn’t decompose, acting almost like a giant mat of living carbon.
But when it’s threatened, that carbon has to go somewhere. The main threat to bogs – draining for development and agriculture – exposes these waterlogged species to air, which kick-starts the decomposition process from microbes.
“It is a possibility that all the carbon which is stored in peat bogs at the moment will be released to the atmosphere,” Pandey said, noting how it will become a greenhouse gas.
She said if we understand these mosses on a microscopic level, scientists and conservationists can better protect and restore them on a larger scale. Her research could lead to making informed decisions about which species would be more successful to reintroduce as part of potential restoration projects.
Historically, bogs have been undervalued, often drained to make land more usable.
Trisha Atwood, an associate professor and ecosystem ecologist at Utah State University, said people are slowly beginning to see them in a new light.
“There has been substantial changes in people’s perception of these wetlands just because they don’t typically hit people’s top 10 most beautiful places,” Atwood said. “Governments are starting to realize that they have these other benefits.”
While forests and forest soil often get attention for their carbon sequestration, Atwood said wetlands are even more important, storing 30 to 50 times faster and at a higher rate than other systems.
“They’re like no other ecosystem on Earth,” she said.
Even as some aspects of wetlands are seen as more valuable, a 2023 Supreme Court decision rolled back most existing protections for these ecosystems. The Sackett v. The EPA decision ruled that the Clean Water Act doesn’t protect wetlands that aren’t continuously connected to bigger bodies of water. The decision has been criticized for putting ecosystems, like bogs, at risk.
Rebecca Hammer is an attorney for the freshwater ecosystems team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. She said peat bogs are particularly affected by the Sackett decision because they are mostly isolated from larger bodies of water.
“They generally begin their life as a lake that doesn’t have a drainage or connection to another water body, which allows vegetation and plant material to collect,” she said, “and the sphagnum mosses that grow there to collect over 1000s of years.”
About half of U.S. states have existing legal protections for wetlands, but these ecosystems in 24 states are left without any protections, legal or otherwise.
There are bogs scattered throughout the Mississippi River basin all the way down to the coast.
Hammer said the decision could have a near-permanent effect on bogs.
“When peat bogs are destroyed or polluted, affected by development, we lose all of those benefits,” she said. “We really can’t replicate peat bogs. They take thousands of years to form. So once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
Colwell, who takes visitors on tours at the Volo Bog, says more needs to be done to protect what’s left.
“We’re trying to restore these natural systems,” she said, “and when we restore them, they can increase the amount of CO2 that they will take.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri, of which Wisconsin Watch is a member, in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. Sign up for Wisconsin Watch’s newsletters to get our news straight to your inbox.
Bogs hold a climate solution through carbon capture, but many have been drained is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A new study builds on previous research that shows winters on the Great Lakes are growing shorter due to climate change.
The Great Lakes have been losing an average of 14 days of winter conditions each decade since 1995 due to warming air temperatures, according to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters.
The study’s lead author, Eric Anderson, an environmental engineering professor with the Colorado School of Mines, said researchers arrived at their findings by examining ice conditions and surface water temperatures.
“We do see that winter time — whether you think about it in terms of ice or think about in terms of really cold water temperatures — we’re just seeing less days where those conditions exist,” Anderson said.
Research has already found the Great Lakes are losing ice cover at a rate of about 5 percent each decade for a total loss of 25 percent between 1973 and 2023. Those changes are occurring as the region has seen among the greatest increases in average winter temperatures over the past 50 years.
The study builds on that research by focusing on changes in water temperatures during the winter months. Anderson noted only Lake Erie typically sees heavy ice cover each winter, whereas the other Great Lakes often see areas of open water.
Winter is typically a blind spot for researchers due to difficulties in obtaining measurements when there’s less ice cover on the lakes. For the study, they relied largely on satellite data, as well as several monitoring stations, to examine how mixing of the lakes from top to bottom may be changing during the winter. Typically, the lakes tend to mix in the fall and spring when temperatures are the same at the top and bottom.
During the summer, the surface of the lakes is warmer and the bottom is colder. In the winter, the opposite is true.
The study’s co-author, Craig Stow, said the reason for that is the maximum density of water is 4 degrees Celsius or about 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Stow, who is a scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, said researchers found there’s been an increase in the number of spring and fall days in the lakes.
“The winter days are being lost to those spring and fall times where the temperatures are essentially the same from the very top to the very bottom,” Stow said.
Stow said that means the lakes are staying warmer in the fall and warming up earlier in the spring.
Winter days on the lakes were defined as days with ice cover or having surface temperatures of less than 2 degrees Celsius. The loss of winter days was found over nearly the entire area of lakes Superior, Huron and Erie. In lakes Michigan and Ontario, the loss of winter days was primarily along the shorelines and bays.
“We saw decreases in ice cover in areas where you tend to see large amounts of ice, so Green Bay and up near Beaver Island and Straits of Mackinac,” Anderson said. “We didn’t see big decreases in ice for the rest of the lake, so you didn’t have a lot of coastal ice loss along the eastern side of Wisconsin or down near Chicago.”
However, researchers did see a loss of colder temperatures in open waters around the southern shoreline of Lake Michigan, shifting to more days that had temperatures like spring or fall.
Lake Superior didn’t lose as many ice days as lakes Huron or Erie because it doesn’t see as much ice cover in the middle of the lake.
“It was losing some number of days with coastal ice, particularly along the Wisconsin shoreline of Superior in the western end there,” Anderson said.
Even so, he said the lake experienced a big shift to temperatures closer to what one might expect in the spring and fall out in open waters.
Anderson and Stow said the changes could have implications for the Great Lakes in terms of extended periods when algal blooms may occur, the duration of shipping seasons, effects on the food web and the $7 billion fishing industry.
“We looked at a couple decades here of change that we see you’re losing a half a month of what we used to think about being the winter,” Anderson said. “That’s really important for the chemistry of the lake. It could be important for the biology of the lake.”
Researchers say questions remain about whether the loss of winter days may stay the same or accelerate, which is one of the things they hope to examine in the future.
This story was originally published by WPR.
Study finds winter days on the Great Lakes growing shorter due to climate change is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Flood control along the Mississippi River is a central piece of a newly passed federal law — work that advocates believe is critical as the river basin sees more frequent and severe extreme weather events due to climate change.
The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is passed by Congress every two years. It gives authority to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to undertake projects and studies to improve the nation’s water resources.
Signed into law Jan. 4, this year’s package includes studies on increased flooding in the upper basin, flood mitigation measures throughout the river system, ecological restoration, and a $6 billion floodwall in Louisiana.
The Mississippi River is managed in large part by the Army Corps, so it often features prominently in the bill, with a dual aim of making the river more suitable for shipping and restoring environmental degradation from flooding, nutrient pollution and climate change.
Kirsten Wallace, executive director of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, called this year’s WRDA “a pretty special one.” She said it contained wins for many of the diverse stakeholders along the river, including shippers, environmental advocates, riverfront communities and federal and state agencies — who don’t always agree.
Advocates lauded the law’s emphasis on nature-based solutions. In a press release, Stephanie Bailenson, policy team lead for The Nature Conservancy, said, “Since 2016, Congress has directed the corps to consider natural and nature-based solutions alongside or instead of traditional infrastructure. This latest act continues that trend.”
But all of these projects are only promised because funding doesn’t come until later, when Congress appropriates it. Many projects authorized in previous versions of the law are still unfunded, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Here’s what will affect the river in the Water Resources Development Act of 2024:
The law authorizes a large-scale study of flooding on the Upper Mississippi River System, which includes the Mississippi River from its headwaters to where it meets the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, as well as the Illinois River and portions of some smaller tributaries.
The upper river has seen two major floods in the last few years: one in 2022 and one in 2019, which lasted for months and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The study’s chief goal: figuring out how to reduce flood risk across the entire river system, instead of relying on municipalities to try to solve flooding problems themselves, which can sometimes have impacts downstream. North of St. Louis, for example, levees constrain the river to protect communities and valuable farmland from flooding — and some levee districts have raised those levees higher, safeguarding themselves but effectively pushing floodwaters faster downstream.
“This plan allows more of a comprehensive way for levee districts to improve what they currently have … in a way that doesn’t put them in a position to be adversarial or just impose risk somewhere else,” Wallace said.
She said the study will be a challenge, but that levee districts are eager for solutions as flood risks and heavier rainfall increase.
Once the study receives funding, it will be led by the Army Corps’ St. Louis District, Wallace said. It’ll solicit input from cities, towns and ports along the river, recreators, the shipping industry and federal environmental agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Cities and towns along the river could get help for the localized effects of flooding too, thanks to several projects authorized by the law. Upstream, that includes La Crosse, Wisconsin, which will enter into an agreement with the Army Corps to study the role of the city’s levees, which were constructed around the river’s record flood in 1965.
“We have to have an eye on maintaining what we’ve got and looking toward the future and whatever conditions the river might undergo to be prepared as best we can,” said Matthew Gallager, the city’s director of engineering and public works. “Because obviously, nature is going to win.”
Downriver, Louisiana secured the largest project authorization within the law. To protect communities in St. Tammany Parish, a county north of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, plans to build a $5.9 billion levee and floodwall system totaling 18.5 miles in length to protect over 26,000 structures, most of which are family homes.
The St. Tammany Flood Risk Management Project is slated to receive $3.7 billion in federal funding. The other 35% will come from non-federal sponsors, such as the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA).
“By authorizing the St. Tammany project for construction, Congress recognizes again the national importance of Louisiana and that CPRA can work with the federal government to execute a multi-billion coastal protection project successfully,” said CPRA Chairman Gordy Dove.
The law also authorizes a federal study of the Lake Pontchartrain Storm Surge Reduction Project, a component of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan meant to protect nine parishes bordering the lake. The Army Corps will investigate whether the proposed project to reduce flood risk is in the federal interest.
Other approved flood control projects will be funded along the lower Mississippi River and its tributaries, including the Ouachita River in Louisiana. Several counties in Mississippi will also receive funding to improve environmental infrastructure, such as water and wastewater systems.
Near Memphis, the bill authorizes the Hatchie-Loosahatchie Ecosystem Restoration project, which covers a 39-mile stretch of the lower Mississippi River. The project aims to manage flood risks while also restoring and sustaining the health, productivity and biological diversity of the flyway.
In New Orleans, a study was authorized to investigate ecosystem restoration and water supply issues, such as the mitigation of future saltwater wedges that threaten drinking water and wetlands at the very end of the Mississippi River.
The law also increases the amount of money Congress can give to the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program, which funds habitat restoration activities and scientific research on the upper river.
Congress increased the money it can direct to the research part of the program by $10 million, bringing the total the program can get to $100 million annually.
The funding boost “really is a recognition of the value of the science … the understanding that has improved about how the system is functioning over the last three decades,” said Marshall Plumley, the Army Corps’ regional manager for the program.
If given extra funding, Plumley said program staff want to use it to better understand the effects of the increased amount of water that has flowed through the river in recent years. That increase, partly attributed to wetter conditions due to climate change, is changing the river’s floodplain habitats, including forests and backwater areas.
The Mississippi River functions as a water superhighway, transporting around $500 million tons of goods each year. Infrastructure to keep shipping running smoothly is costly, and one adjustment in WRDA 2024 is aimed at shifting the burden of those costs.
Taxpayers have been funding inland waterway infrastructure for nearly two centuries, but in 1978 Congress established the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which requires the private shipping industry to pitch in.
Today, the trust fund’s coffers are filled by a 29-cent per gallon diesel tax on commercial operators that use the Mississippi River and other inland waterways, adding up to about $125 million per year in recent years. New construction — like wider, more modern locks and dams on the upper river — is paid for through a public-private partnership: the private dollars in the fund, and federal dollars allocated by Congress.
Until recently, the private dollars covered 35% of new construction costs, and federal dollars covered 65%. The new WRDA adjusts that to 25% and 75%, respectively.
Advocates for the shipping industry have long believed taxpayers should have a bigger hand in funding construction because it’s not just shippers who benefit from an efficient river.
The balance in the trust fund “always limits” construction that can happen in a given year, said Jen Armstrong, director of government relations for the Waterways Council.
“We can’t afford to have projects take three decades or two decades to complete,” Armstrong said, “because we have other locks that are deteriorating.”
Armstrong said she believes shifting more of the cost to the federal government will accelerate those projects.
Not everyone supports the cost share change, however, including American Rivers, which has opposed the creation of new locks on the upper Mississippi in favor of helping the river revert to more natural processes.
Kelsey Cruickshank, the group’s director of policy and government relations, called it “a disappointing development that continues to give short shrift to the incredible ecosystem of the world’s third-largest freshwater river system.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report For America and funded by the Walton Family Foundation. Wisconsin Watch is a member of the network. Sign up for our newsletter to get our news straight to your inbox.
New federal law addresses climate extremes and flooding along Mississippi River is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
As a major contributor to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the transportation sector has immense potential to advance decarbonization. However, a zero-emissions global supply chain requires re-imagining reliance on a heavy-duty trucking industry that emits 810,000 tons of CO2, or 6 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, and consumes 29 billion gallons of diesel annually in the U.S. alone.
A new study by MIT researchers, presented at the recent American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2024 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, quantifies the impact of a zero-emission truck’s design range on its energy storage requirements and operational revenue. The multivariable model outlined in the paper allows fleet owners and operators to better understand the design choices that impact the economic feasibility of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty trucks for commercial application, equipping stakeholders to make informed fleet transition decisions.
“The whole issue [of decarbonizing trucking] is like a very big, messy pie. One of the things we can do, from an academic standpoint, is quantify some of those pieces of pie with modeling, based on information and experience we’ve learned from industry stakeholders,” says ZhiYi Liang, PhD student on the renewable hydrogen team at the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center (GEAR) and lead author of the study. Co-authored by Bryony DuPont, visiting scholar at GEAR, and Amos Winter, the Germeshausen Professor in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, the paper elucidates operational and socioeconomic factors that need to be considered in efforts to decarbonize heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs).
Operational and infrastructure challenges
The team’s model shows that a technical challenge lies in the amount of energy that needs to be stored on the truck to meet the range and towing performance needs of commercial trucking applications. Due to the high energy density and low cost of diesel, existing diesel drivetrains remain more competitive than alternative lithium battery-electric vehicle (Li-BEV) and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicle (H2 FCEV) drivetrains. Although Li-BEV drivetrains have the highest energy efficiency of all three, they are limited to short-to-medium range routes (under 500 miles) with low freight capacity, due to the weight and volume of the onboard energy storage needed. In addition, the authors note that existing electric grid infrastructure will need significant upgrades to support large-scale deployment of Li-BEV HDVs.
While the hydrogen-powered drivetrain has a significant weight advantage that enables higher cargo capacity and routes over 750 miles, the current state of hydrogen fuel networks limits economic viability, especially once operational cost and projected revenue are taken into account. Deployment will most likely require government intervention in the form of incentives and subsidies to reduce the price of hydrogen by more than half, as well as continued investment by corporations to ensure a stable supply. Also, as H2-FCEVs are still a relatively new technology, the ongoing design of conformal onboard hydrogen storage systems — one of which is the subject of Liang’s PhD — is crucial to successful adoption into the HDV market.
The current efficiency of diesel systems is a result of technological developments and manufacturing processes established over many decades, a precedent that suggests similar strides can be made with alternative drivetrains. However, interactions with fleet owners, automotive manufacturers, and refueling network providers reveal another major hurdle in the way that each “slice of the pie” is interrelated — issues must be addressed simultaneously because of how they affect each other, from renewable fuel infrastructure to technological readiness and capital cost of new fleets, among other considerations. And first steps into an uncertain future, where no one sector is fully in control of potential outcomes, is inherently risky.
“Besides infrastructure limitations, we only have prototypes [of alternative HDVs] for fleet operator use, so the cost of procuring them is high, which means there isn’t demand for automakers to build manufacturing lines up to a scale that would make them economical to produce,” says Liang, describing just one step of a vicious cycle that is difficult to disrupt, especially for industry stakeholders trying to be competitive in a free market.
Quantifying a path to feasibility
“Folks in the industry know that some kind of energy transition needs to happen, but they may not necessarily know for certain what the most viable path forward is,” says Liang. Although there is no singular avenue to zero emissions, the new model provides a way to further quantify and assess at least one slice of pie to aid decision-making.
Other MIT-led efforts aimed at helping industry stakeholders navigate decarbonization include an interactive mapping tool developed by Danika MacDonell, Impact Fellow at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC); alongside Florian Allroggen, executive director of MITs Zero Impact Aviation Alliance; and undergraduate researchers Micah Borrero, Helena De Figueiredo Valente, and Brooke Bao. The MCSC’s Geospatial Decision Support Tool supports strategic decision-making for fleet operators by allowing them to visualize regional freight flow densities, costs, emissions, planned and available infrastructure, and relevant regulations and incentives by region.
While current limitations reveal the need for joint problem-solving across sectors, the authors believe that stakeholders are motivated and ready to tackle climate problems together. Once-competing businesses already appear to be embracing a culture shift toward collaboration, with the recent agreement between General Motors and Hyundai to explore “future collaboration across key strategic areas,” including clean energy.
Liang believes that transitioning the transportation sector to zero emissions is just one part of an “energy revolution” that will require all sectors to work together, because “everything is connected. In order for the whole thing to make sense, we need to consider ourselves part of that pie, and the entire system needs to change,” says Liang. “You can’t make a revolution succeed by yourself.”
The authors acknowledge the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium for connecting them with industry members in the HDV ecosystem; and the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center and MIT Morningside Academy for Design for financial support.
© Photo: Bob Adams/Flickr
A new study on behalf of Milliken has identified the top U.S. states for sustainable energy production. The rapid rise of the sustainable energy sector worldwide has been one of the most important technological and economic stories of recent years. Continued urgency to mitigate the impact of climate change has spurred governments and companies to speed the transition …
The post States With the Most Businesses Focused on Sustainable Energy appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
Climate anxiety affects nearly half of young people aged 16-25. Students like second-year Rachel Mohammed find hope and inspiration through her involvement in innovative climate solutions, working alongside peers who share her determination. “I’ve met so many people at MIT who are dedicated to finding climate solutions in ways that I had never imagined, dreamed of, or heard of. That is what keeps me going, and I’m doing my part,” she says.
Hydrogen-fueled engines
Hydrogen offers the potential for zero or near-zero emissions, with the ability to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution by 29 percent. However, the hydrogen industry faces many challenges related to storage solutions and costs.
Mohammed leads the hydrogen team on MIT’s Electric Vehicle Team (EVT), which is dedicated to harnessing hydrogen power to build a cleaner, more sustainable future. EVT is one of several student-led build teams at the Edgerton Center focused on innovative climate solutions. Since its founding in 1992, the Edgerton Center has been a hub for MIT students to bring their ideas to life.
Hydrogen is mostly used in large vehicles like trucks and planes because it requires a lot of storage space. EVT is building their second iteration of a motorcycle based on what Mohammed calls a “goofy hypothesis” that you can use hydrogen to power a small vehicle. The team employs a hydrogen fuel cell system, which generates electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen. However, the technology faces challenges, particularly in storage, which EVT is tackling with innovative designs for smaller vehicles.
Presenting at the 2024 World Hydrogen Summit reaffirmed Mohammed’s confidence in this project. “I often encounter skepticism, with people saying it’s not practical. Seeing others actively working on similar initiatives made me realize that we can do it too,” Mohammed says.
The team’s first successful track test last October allowed them to evaluate the real-world performance of their hydrogen-powered motorcycle, marking a crucial step in proving the feasibility and efficiency of their design.
MIT’s Sustainable Engine Team (SET), founded by junior Charles Yong, uses the combustion method to generate energy with hydrogen. This is a promising technology route for high-power-density applications, like aviation, but Yong believes it hasn’t received enough attention. Yong explains, “In the hydrogen power industry, startups choose fuel cell routes instead of combustion because gas turbine industry giants are 50 years ahead. However, these giants are moving very slowly toward hydrogen due to its not-yet-fully-developed infrastructure. Working under the Edgerton Center allows us to take risks and explore advanced tech directions to demonstrate that hydrogen combustion can be readily available.”
Both EVT and SET are publishing their research and providing detailed instructions for anyone interested in replicating their results.
Running on sunshine
The Solar Electric Vehicle Team powers a car built from scratch with 100 percent solar energy.
The team’s single-occupancy car Nimbus won the American Solar Challenge two years in a row. This year, the team pushed boundaries further with Gemini, a multiple-occupancy vehicle that challenges conventional perceptions of solar-powered cars.
Senior Andre Greene explains, “the challenge comes from minimizing how much energy you waste because you work with such little energy. It’s like the equivalent power of a toaster.”
Gemini looks more like a regular car and less like a “spaceship,” as NBC’s 1st Look affectionately called Nimbus. “It more resembles what a fully solar-powered car could look like versus the single-seaters. You don’t see a lot of single-seater cars on the market, so it’s opening people’s minds,” says rising junior Tessa Uviedo, team captain.
All-electric since 2013
The MIT Motorsports team switched to an all-electric powertrain in 2013. Captain Eric Zhou takes inspiration from China, the world’s largest market for electric vehicles. “In China, there is a large government push towards electric, but there are also five or six big companies almost as large as Tesla size, building out these electric vehicles. The competition drives the majority of vehicles in China to become electric.”
The team is also switching to four-wheel drive and regenerative braking next year, which reduces the amount of energy needed to run. “This is more efficient and better for power consumption because the torque from the motors is applied straight to the tires. It’s more efficient than having a rear motor that must transfer torque to both rear tires. Also, you’re taking advantage of all four tires in terms of producing grip, while you can only rely on the back tires in a rear-wheel-drive car,” Zhou says.
Zhou adds that Motorsports wants to help prepare students for the electric vehicle industry. “A large majority of upperclassmen on the team have worked, or are working, at Tesla or Rivian.”
Former Motorsports powertrain lead Levi Gershon ’23, SM ’24 recently founded CRABI Robotics — a fully autonomous marine robotic system designed to conduct in-transit cleaning of marine vessels by removing biofouling, increasing vessels’ fuel efficiency.
An Indigenous approach to sustainable rockets
First Nations Launch, the all-Indigenous student rocket team, recently won the Grand Prize in the 2024 NASA First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition. Using Indigenous methodologies, this team considers the environment in the materials and methods they employ.
“The environmental impact is always something that we consider when we’re making design decisions and operational decisions. We’ve thought about things like biodegradable composites and parachutes,” says rising junior Hailey Polson, team captain. “Aerospace has been a very wasteful industry in the past. There are huge leaps and bounds being made with forward progress in regard to reusable rockets, which is definitely lowering the environmental impact.”
Collecting climate change data with autonomous boats
Arcturus, the recent first-place winner in design at the 16th Annual RoboBoat Competition, is developing autonomous surface vehicles that can greatly aid in marine research. “The ocean is one of our greatest resources to combat climate change; thus, the accessibility of data will help scientists understand climate patterns and predict future trends. This can help people learn how to prepare for potential disasters and how to reduce each of our carbon footprints,” says Arcturus captain and rising junior Amy Shi.
“We are hoping to expand our outreach efforts to incorporate more sustainability-related programs. This can include more interactions with local students to introduce them to how engineering can make a positive impact in the climate space or other similar programs,” Shi says.
Shi emphasizes that hope is a crucial force in the battle against climate change. “There are great steps being taken every day to combat this seemingly impending doom we call the climate crisis. It’s important to not give up hope, because this hope is what’s driving the leaps and bounds of innovation happening in the climate community. The mainstream media mostly reports on the negatives, but the truth is there is a lot of positive climate news every day. Being more intentional about where you seek your climate news can really help subside this feeling of doom about our planet.”
© Photo: Adam Glanzman
Current methods used to process hydrogen into a usable fuel are cost-prohibitive, but several new innovations are promising to open the door to cost-competitive green hydrogen. Hydrogen is well positioned to be the fuel of the future. However, a commercially viable transition to green hydrogen – the environmentally friendly version of the fuel – seems …
The post Fueling the Future: Unlocking Low-Cost Green Hydrogen appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
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