Last week’s record-setting and hazardous wildfire smoke that covered much of the state for days limited several outdoor activities.

The post How wildfire smoke impacted Milwaukee Zoo animals and Apostle Islands economic activity appeared first on WPR.

The Bad River tribe and environmental groups are again suing the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources over decisions that allow work to move forward on Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute at four waterway crossings.

The post Bad River tribe, groups sue over waterway crossing approvals for Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin and a coalition of states have secured a win in a lawsuit that sought to force the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to implement strengthened Biden-era standards for soot pollution.

The post Wisconsin and other states notch win in lawsuit over soot pollution standards appeared first on WPR.

Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin ratepayer advocates are calling on the Trump administration to stop extending the life of coal plants previously slated to come offline.

The post Gov. Evers calls on Trump administration to stop extending life of coal plants appeared first on WPR.

In a recent guest column, I argued that Wisconsin’s clean energy future is about affordability, jobs, manufacturing and economic competitiveness.

The next question is equally important:

How should we build that future?

Not one regulatory docket at a time.

Wisconsin stands at one of the most consequential energy crossroads in its history. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and electrification are driving electricity demand faster than anyone anticipated. The Public Service Commission’s draft Strategic Energy Assessment projects peak demand could increase by more than 40 percent by 2032, with more than 70 percent of that growth tied to just three proposed hyperscale data centers.

Those investments present tremendous economic opportunities. They also require smarter planning.

Today, the PSC is evaluating the Foundry Ridge and Red Oak Ridge methane gas plants alongside transmission projects, data center tariffs, utility investments, and other major infrastructure. Each proceeding examines a single project. None asks the broader question:

Taken together, are these investments the lowest-cost, lowest-risk path to Wisconsin’s energy future?

Without comprehensive resource planning, regulators have little opportunity to compare alternatives before committing customers to decades of infrastructure costs.

Affordable electricity is economic development.

The decisions made today will determine what Wisconsin families, businesses, manufacturers, and farmers pay for electricity for decades. They will also affect water resources, public health, and our state’s long-term competitiveness.

This is not an argument against growth. Wisconsin will continue to attract investment in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and data centers. The question is not whether growth occurs, but whether it is planned responsibly so that large energy users pay the costs they create rather than shifting risks onto everyone else.

Planning should begin by comparing complete portfolios of resources instead of evaluating projects in isolation.

Before approving new methane gas plants, regulators should determine whether expanded battery storage, demand response, distributed energy resources, energy efficiency, and additional wind and solar generation can provide the same reliability at lower long-term cost and lower financial risk.

The cleanest megawatt is often the one that never has to be generated.

Demand response is infrastructure. Every megawatt shifted away from peak demand reduces pressure on the grid and can delay or eliminate the need for costly new power plants. Large customers, including data centers, have enormous opportunities to shift demand through operational flexibility and advanced controls.

Battery storage also deserves greater attention. Increasingly, it competes directly with natural gas by providing reliability during periods of peak demand while avoiding decades of fuel costs and emissions.

Water belongs in this conversation as well.

Both data centers and methane gas plants can require substantial water for cooling. The proposed Red Oak Ridge facility alone could consume hundreds of thousands of gallons each day. In rural Wisconsin, where farms, private wells, trout streams, wetlands, and local economies depend on reliable water supplies, those impacts deserve careful scrutiny before permits are approved.

Natural gas will likely remain part of Wisconsin’s energy mix during the transition. But every new gas plant also commits customers to decades of fuel-price risk driven by commodity markets, pipeline constraints, extreme weather, LNG exports, and geopolitical uncertainty. Clean energy resources, by contrast, have no fuel costs and are often the lowest-cost, fastest-to-deploy options available.

Reliability and clean energy are not competing goals.

Modern planning can deliver both.

Wisconsin should also modernize its regulatory framework by evaluating the cumulative impacts of related infrastructure investments. Generation, transmission, data centers, water use, and utility planning are interconnected. They should be planned together, not approved one docket at a time.

Wisconsin has everything it needs to lead: world-class manufacturers, innovative businesses, skilled workers, abundant renewable resources, productive farmland, and a clean energy economy that already employs more than 75,000 people.

Wisconsin does not have an electricity shortage.

It has a planning challenge.

Planning reduces costs. It improves reliability. It protects water resources. It strengthens economic competitiveness.

Most importantly, it allows Wisconsin to build an energy system designed for 2050, rather than one modeled in 1990.

Instead of approving Wisconsin’s energy future one docket at a time, let’s build it through one comprehensive plan.

A project to drill for metals on federal land in northern Wisconsin has been added to the Trump administration's list of infrastructure projects taking part in a fast-tracked permitting process.

The post Mining company’s project in Wisconsin takes part in fast-tracked federal permitting process appeared first on WPR.

The Trump administration is removing protections from the key places where endangered species live, saying states can keep the areas safe. 

But experts say states aren’t equipped for the task.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration finalized a major change to the Endangered Species Act, rolling back protections for the forests, wetlands, deserts and other critical habitats that many plants and animals rely on.

The new rule will open many landscapes to development, logging, mining and oil and gas drilling. Wildlife officials — in both conservative and liberal states — had expressed strong concerns about the proposal, saying it would threaten their plans to safeguard endangered species. 

But federal officials framed the decision as a move to give “freedom” to state leaders to manage wildlife without burdensome federal regulations. 

States that wish to continue protecting habitats can do so under state law, the Interior Department and other federal agencies wrote in their lengthy new regulations. 

But legal experts and wildlife veterans say that almost no states have endangered species laws on the books that allow state officials to prevent habitat destruction in the name of saving wildlife. 

While many states have laws to stop poaching and direct killing of wildlife, the protection of nesting trees, spawning streams and other resources has long fallen to the federal Endangered Species Act and the agencies that enforce it. 

“It’s not going to be a situation where the states can easily just jump in here and fill the void,” said Robert Anderson, who served as solicitor for the Department of the Interior during the Biden administration. “It’s not going to help states, and it’s going to make it worse for the species.”

Many wildlife experts also noted that state wildlife agencies are already underfunded as it is. Taking on the massive regulatory system that prevents developers and extractive industries from destroying critical habitat would require far more resources than those agencies have available.

A coalition of environmental groups and tribal nations have filed lawsuits challenging the federal rollback. 

The ‘harm’ rule

On July 10, the federal departments of Interior and Commerce announced they had finalized a rule rescinding the longstanding definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act. 

For decades, federal officials have scrutinized logging projects that would cut old-growth trees where owls build their nests, and agriculture operations that diverted water from streams where salmon return to spawn. 

But now, the feds are pivoting to a much more limited definition of “harm.” Only actions that directly injure or kill the animals themselves will be considered a violation of endangered species law.

“You can destroy the resources a species requires as long as you don’t do it when the species is at home,” said Karrigan Börk, a law professor and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the UC Davis Institute of the Environment. “If you drain a salmon river during the summer when the salmon aren’t in it, ultimately it has the same impact of killing off that whole species.”

In its announcement, the Trump administration framed the move as restoring the “original intent” of the Endangered Species Act and reducing regulations that punished people for “indirect or speculative impacts” to wildlife.

The Interior Department did not respond to a Stateline interview request. 

A 2019 study published in Conservation Science and Practice of species added to the list of endangered species from 1975 to 2017 found that only 17% of them faced threats from direct killing, while 81% faced habitat loss. 

“It’s common sense that we can’t save a species unless we save the places that they live,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit conservation group that is planning to sue the federal government over the change. “This is an attempted death blow to the Endangered Species Act.”

Some industry groups praised the move. The American Petroleum Institute and other oil and gas groups said in public comments that they supported the effort to limit habitat protections, but expressed concern that the Trump administration’s move to rescind the “harm” definition without issuing a new interpretation could allow a future president or the courts to issue a more expansive reading of the law. 

The groups cited Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion in a landmark 1995 case that upheld habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act. 

“‘Harm’ must involve a direct injury to a particular animal,” the groups wrote, arguing that it “cannot result indirectly from habitat modification nor can the term apply to a population of animals.”

States’ role

In public comments after the rule was initially proposed, wildlife agency leaders from both liberal and conservative states said the change would be a blow to their conservation efforts.

The proposed rule would have “dire consequences,” wrote Bruce Kreft, chief of the conservation and communications division with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. “Eliminating habitat protection will lead to further population declines and, ultimately, an increase in the number of species needing (Endangered Species Act) protection.”

Wildlife officials in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, New Jersey, Vermont and Wyoming also expressed concern about the loss of habitat protections, as did the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, a nonprofit that represents state wildlife managers. 

Of the public comments reviewed by Stateline, only Alaska’s wildlife agency leader offered wholehearted support for the change. 

In response to those concerns, federal officials wrote in their rulemaking decision that the change “does not alter the ability of States to implement their own conservation programs or to regulate habitat impacts under State law.”

But wildlife experts say states cannot replicate the habitat protections that federal law provided. Although most states have their own state-level endangered species laws, they’re largely focused on poaching or direct killing of animals. 

“The state-level endangered species acts are wildly variable in what they’re supposed to cover and are uniformly under-resourced and under-enforced, because the federal Endangered Species Act has been the real baseline since the 1970s,” said Börk, the UC Davis professor.

Chris Servheen, who served as grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 35 years, worked closely with state wildlife agencies in that position.

“It’s really disingenuous to say if states want to protect habitat, they can do so,” he said. “That’s not their role, that’s not what they do. States manage the take (killing) of the animals directly related to hunting or trapping or something like that. The federal agencies manage the land base.”

According to a 2024 analysis from the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, only eight states plus Puerto Rico require the designation of critical habitats under their laws to protect endangered species. 

California appears to be the only state with a process under state law to account for damage to wildlife habitat and require developers to offset those impacts, such as funding a restoration project nearby, said Becca Madsen, restoration economy director with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. 

“(States) don’t have this layer of federal regulations and staff and the consistency of how it’s been regulated for decades,” she said. “Now they’ve got to create their own processes and permitting and data and guidance. It’s a lot.”

Even if states were to pass laws and invest in programs to protect wildlife habitat, they would be unable to enforce those measures on federal land. Across the West, federal public lands cover vast swaths of many states and provide critical habitat for many species. If the U.S. Forest Service were to permit a logging operation on old-growth forest under the new “harm” definition, state wildlife officials could do nothing to stop it. 

Meanwhile, some advocates are doubtful that state lawmakers have an appetite to take on the regulatory role once handled by the feds. 

“Most state legislatures are pretty strongly captured by development and real estate interests,” said Kate Groetzinger, communications director with the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group. “The political bar to putting something like this in place at the state level is a lot higher than it was when the Endangered Species Act was passed.”

Going to court

Last week, a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the “harm” rule. A pair of tribes in Washington state filed their own lawsuit, asserting that the decision will infringe on tribal fisheries that the federal government is obligated to protect under treaty agreements. 

Some legal experts expect a flood of lawsuits over specific proposed projects.

“Courts are going to have to figure out on a case-by-case basis what’s covered and what’s not covered,” said Börk, the UC Davis professor. “It’s going to lead to widespread confusion over the next decades over what’s illegal or legal, and it’s going to make it harder for developers and landowners to know whether they have liability or not.”

Some advocates expressed concern that the lawsuits challenging the Trump administration could make it to the conservative Supreme Court, which could then permanently enshrine an interpretation of the Endangered Species Act that fails to protect habitat. That would leave a future administration powerless to undo the change, unless Congress were to rewrite the law. 

But some see no real alternatives. 

“I’d be worried if it got to the Supreme Court, but the alternative is just acquiescence, which I don’t think is a good idea,” said Anderson, the former Interior solicitor.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Chris Servheen’s name. Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org.

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Wisconsinites breathed record-breaking levels of air pollution Thursday as wildfire smoke from northern Minnesota and Canada wafted across much of the Great Lakes region and the Northeast. Many monitoring stations across the state recorded pollution considered hazardous for the first time in at least 16 years — the span covered by most monitoring stations’ records.

As of 8 a.m. on Friday, Air Quality Index, or AQI, levels in Madison had peaked above 450 — far above the AQI’s 301 threshold for “hazardous” air quality, where everyone — not just sensitive groups — should take precautions to avoid breathing dangerous air. 

Milwaukee’s AQI reached 644 earlier on Thursday — more than twice the hazardous threshold. Air quality deteriorated even further in northwestern Wisconsin, with the index reaching 967 along the Minnesota border earlier in the day. 

Many Wisconsin communities, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Odanah and Appleton, were still observing AQI over the 301 threshold Friday morning.

The index categories typically run only from zero to 500.

Thursday’s pollution surpassed levels once considered unprecedented. Before Canadian wildfire smoke pushed the AQI to record highs across Wisconsin in July 2023, cities including Madison, Milwaukee and Waukesha had not recorded an AQI above 200 since at least 2010, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of historical AQI data.

But wildfire smoke has elevated air pollution in Wisconsin each summer since 2023. Major cities have periodically recorded higher AQI readings around July, though Thursday’s levels were the first to surpass those recorded in 2023.

“This is a hazardous air quality episode that we have not experienced before,” Craig Czarnecki, air management outreach coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said in an email.

DataWatch: Wisconsin air pollution reaches record highs as wildfire smoke engulfs the state 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.

Conservation advocates in Wisconsin say the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the Endangered Species Act threatens habitat protections for rare species in the state.

The post Groups fear endangered species in Wisconsin are at risk under regulatory rollback appeared first on WPR.

As smoke blankets most of Wisconsin, air quality has turned hazardous in many areas of the state. Air experts with the DNR are advising everyone to stay indoors and wear masks outside.

The post Wisconsin DNR records worst smoke levels on record, advises staying inside appeared first on WPR.

For the second time in three years, noxious clouds of wildfire smoke are smothering Wisconsin, dangerously degrading air quality and restricting people’s ability to go outside. In Madison, smoke began drifting in during the early morning hours on Thursday. By sunrise, the stench of burning forests had settled in and coated the Badger State’s capitol city in a gray smog, compounding a multi-day heatwave bringing temperatures to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The smoke originated from 17 wildfires in the Superior National Forest caused by lightning strikes in far northeastern Minnesota. Severe drought and heat fueled the fires, threatening a 1.1 million acre forest that is the most visited wilderness area in the U.S. Rangers are searching for 6,000 to 10,000 people who might be in an area that has been evacuated because of the fires, PBS reported. Officials have cancelled all Boundary Water canoe permits, and closed public access to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as part of a 3.9 million acre closure covering the entire Superior National Forest.

In Wisconsin, the fallout has been far-reaching. A statewide air quality advisory has been issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with the air expected to remain unhealthy until at least Friday. 

Local health departments from Milwaukee to Kenosha are warning residents to avoid the outdoors as much as possible, especially children, older people, pregnant women and those with respiratory ailments like asthma and heart disease. Even healthy people may experience eye irritation, coughing, sore throats or shortness of breath due to exposure to the smoke. 

“While breathing problems and respiratory health dangers are often considered the biggest health impact from wildfire smoke, it’s important to recognize the impact on cardiovascular health as well,” said Dr. Art Coffey, a board member of the Milwaukee American Heart Association and a ProHealth Care cardiologist. “Wildfire smoke contains a lot of pollutants including fine, microscopic particles linked to cardiovascular risk. As these fires continue to burn, that contaminated smoke is traveling many miles beyond the immediately affected area.” 

A press release from the American Heart Association warns that smoke exposure can increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest and increase burdens on local emergency services. One study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that heavy wildfire smoke exposure increased the risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by 70%, with that risk elevated among both men and women, particularly in adults from 35-64 years of age and those in high-poverty communities.

In a new analysis, the environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin estimated that 250 premature deaths occur each year in Wisconsin due to wildfire smoke exposure. The environmental group warns that these trends are likely to worsen. From 2010 to 2020, Clean Wisconsin stated, wildfire smoke caused unhealthy air quality conditions in the state for less than one day per year. Since 2020, however, wildfire smoke has caused unhealthy air in Wisconsin for an average of nine days per year. The smoke also carries particulate matter which is so small that it can penetrate the lungs deeply and cross into the blood stream, potentially leading to heart disease, cancer, dementia, blood clots, stroke and early death.

Milwaukee’s health and public works departments have suspended or modified some services. Garbage and recycling collection is suspended until further notice, and the city’s drop-off centers are also closed. The city tow lot closed Thursday afternoon. Air quality in the Milwaukee area is considered dangerous, and people are advised to stay inside, run air conditioning, use portable air cleaners or air filters, wear N95 masks or similar protection if they have to go outside, and to check on their neighbors and loved ones. 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley  said in a statement that this has become “the worst air quality on record for our community,” adding, “I encourage everyone to take this situation seriously, limit time outdoors when possible, and follow guidance from public health officials.”

All beer gardens, splash pads, outdoor and indoor pools and wading pools have closed in Milwaukee County parks. Residents rely on some of these services to cope with the high temperatures, but the smoke makes their continued operation unsafe. The Milwaukee County Zoo has also had to move some animals inside and cancel attractions and programming.

The Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Pool in Madison in Madison is also closed. In Kenosha, two park pools have closed as well as a municipal golf course, bulk and recycling and compost drop-off sites. A local “Peanut Butter & Jam concert” has also been canceled until further notice.

Climate change, the elephant trumpeting in the room

Experts and advocates stress the connection between repeated wildfire smoke emergencies and climate change, which creates the heatwaves and extreme drought conditions which set the stage for massive blazes.

“Increasingly smoky skies underscore the importance of a rapid transition to clean energy rather than building more polluting fossil fuel infrastructure that further contributes to climate change,” Dr. Paul Matthewson, science program director for Clean Wisconsin, said in a statement. “The faster we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, the more summer days we will be able to enjoy outside without worrying about whether the air is safe to breathe.” 

“The wildfire smoke blanketing Wisconsin is a reminder that climate change is not a distant threat,” said Peg Shaeffer, spokesperson for Midwest Environmental Advocates. “It is already harming public health and disrupting our daily lives. While no single fire can be attributed solely to climate change, we know that a warming climate is making large wildfires more frequent and more severe.”

Chelsea Chandler, Clean Wisconsin’s climate, energy and air program director, said, “This is hurting everybody — our kids on the playground, farmers, construction workers.” Chandler added, “The public health threat we are all enduring must be a wakeup call…Wisconsin is moving in the wrong direction. Our energy companies are doubling down on burning dangerous fossil fuels to meet soaring AI data center demand, adding to the hazardous air pollution we breathe and damaging our climate. Wisconsinites are paying the price.”

Chandler said that Wisconsin needs to rapidly employ several policies including:

• Rapidly shutting down Wisconsin’s remaining coal power plants
• Ending investments in fossil fuel-burning infrastructure, such as new methane gas plants and oil pipelines
• Dramatically increasing funding for programs to help Wisconsinites save energy and money
• Investing in public transit and electric vehicle charging infrastructure
• Supporting large-scale wind and solar development
• Removing barriers to rooftop and community solar
• Cultivating  farming practices that truly store carbon in the soil and restore soil health

“These ideas are not new; in fact, many other states are already taking action,” said Chandler. “For example, Wisconsin is last in the Midwest when it comes to wind energy production, far behind our neighbors…We’ve got to realize that Wisconsin is not an island. No community is safe from the impacts of climate change. The question is, what are we — and our state leaders — doing to help?”

It’s a question young people, especially those who have grown up in an era of climate emergency, ask their elders with increasing audacity. Last year, a group of young Wisconsinites attempted to take the government to court, asking the state to eliminate laws that worsen the climate crisis and accusing those in power of robbing them of their right to a safe and stable future due to policies which contribute to climate change. In April, a Dane County judge dismissed the case, saying that although she was sympathetic to the children, that what they demanded was a political question beyond judicial review. 

“Needless to say, we strongly disagree,” said Shaeffer. Midwest Environmental Advocates, which represented the children in the court action. “These kids deserve more than sympathy. They deserve to have their day in court.” 

The children involved in the case had suffered the effects of wildfire smoke exposure in recent years, Shaeffer said in an emailed statement to the Wisconsin Examiner. One 18-year-old girl named Madeline has asthma, and must stay indoors and avoid  the smoke to avoid flare-ups,  preventing her from biking, hiking or running outdoors. Another 16-year-old named Indy must stay indoors for weeks on end due to his asthma. Caroline, a 9-year-old girl, said she feels “trapped” when heat and smoke prevent her from playing outside. Those kinds of experiences were also shared by 18-year-old Lucy, who quit the cross-country ski team because practices were cancelled due to a lack of snow in the winter and smoke in the summer. 16-year-old Ted must do farm chores when smoke is heavy in the air. And 12-year-old Elia suffers migraines which are worsened by the heat and smoke. 

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax and a scam. Under both his administrations, climate policies ground to a halt as fossil fuel companies were given carte blanche to “drill baby drill,” as Trump is fond of saying.

“These are the real, lived experiences of Wisconsin young people whose health and wellbeing are being harmed by state laws that exacerbate climate change,” said Shaeffer. “We believe the court has both the authority and the obligation to address that harm.”

Last week, for a brief, beautiful span of days, all three of our young-adult daughters were immersed in nature, reveling in the delicious freedom of summertime. One, a camp counselor, was leading a group on a two-week trek through Yellowstone National Park. She sent us photos of the mountains, campfires, sweaty, grinning campers, a herd of bison they encountered by the side of the road. The other two sisters were on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. They paddled from lake to lake, fell asleep to the sound of loons, woke up early to plunge in the crystal clear water.

Just as all three girls were ending their trips, more than a dozen wildfires swept through the Superior National Forest, prompting the Forest Service to close all entry points to the Boundary Waters. Some visitors were stranded. Eight Forest Service rangers paddled in to rescue people throughout the 150-mile stretch of wilderness on the U.S.-Canadian border. Our daughter who led the trip to Yellowstone returned to her base camp in Grand Marais, Minnesota, to learn that further trips have been canceled. A group of campers who were stuck in the Boundary Waters had to be rescued by helicopter. The smoke was chokingly thick. “It feels like the apocalypse,” she texted.

In Madison we woke up Thursday morning to the stinging haze of wildfire smoke blanketing the city, drifting down on us from the same forest fires.

The abrupt end of summer’s idyll is a heartache, not just for the immediate shock, but for what it means — a world on fire, a feeling of dread of the losses to come. There is no escape from the rapidly accelerating disasters caused by climate change. All of us are touched by it in our interconnected world. Yet somehow, we can’t get our act together to respond. As a country, we seem determined to kid ourselves about what we are seeing with our own eyes. Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, has called warnings about extreme weather triggered by climate change “doomsaying, sky-is-falling rhetoric.”

Last summer, Tiffany and fellow Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, along with three of their Republican colleagues from Minnesota wrote a letter to the Canadian embassy to complain that wildfire smoke was ruining summer across the Midwest.

“In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things,” Tiffany and his colleagues wrote, demanding to know what the Canadians planned to do about it. Tens of thousands of Canadians were being displaced by raging fires at the time. “With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken,” Tiffany and his colleagues wrote.

Wildfires are getting worse because of climate change. The problem is particularly acute for Canada, where the Arctic region is rapidly warming and hotter, drier summers are turning forest land into a tinderbox, where a stray lightning strike can start a conflagration. The same thing is happening in the Superior National Forest this summer, where the fires are caused by lightning and the hot, dry conditions that are not letting up.

Instead of working to mitigate the threat, the Trump administration has dismantled the arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that researches wildfires and other climate-related threats, as well as the Forest Service’s firefighting teams. In 2025, the Forest Service lost nearly 6,000 employees. Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget aims to cut the Forest Service budget by 75%. 

Tiffany’s scolding letter to Canada aside, the policies he has supported under Trump have directly increased fire hazards. To the eight rangers now searching the Boundary Waters for people trapped by the fires, the Forest Service office in Minnesota is hoping to add back some of the staff they’ve lost to Trump’s ill-advised reorganization and cuts. 

“We are actively trying through our existing staff to reach out to former staff that have retired or moved to another position off-forest that still have firefighting skills and credentials,” Forest Service spokesperson Christine Kolinski told the Minnesota Star Tribune. 

This summer’s fires are more than just a wake-up call. They are a five-alarm emergency alert. We are losing so much so fast. We all have a stake in facing it and acting now. It does no good to pretend the disaster isn’t happening or to blame our neighbors, as if they could fix things for us by getting out their rakes. The least we can demand of our political leaders is that they stop dismantling the only tools we have to fight the incineration of our world. We owe that much to every kid who looks forward to every future summer.

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Wildfires in northern Minnesota and Canada have caused some of the worst air quality on record for Wisconsin. The entire state remains under an Air Quality Advisory for fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke until noon on Friday, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, most of the state’s air quality was in the “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” Air Quality category. That means that everyone, not just sensitive groups, should avoid outdoor activities, the DNR said.

In areas near Superior, the Air Quality Index rose above 800, while parts of eastern Wisconsin including Milwaukee and Kenosha measured above 650. National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Sheppard told Wisconsin Watch these levels are some of the worst on record. 

“What we’ve heard from some of our partners is that the Air Quality Index values that we’re seeing are definitely either never before seen or up there,” Sheppard said. “I’ve been working here for three years, and I’ve seen nothing anywhere near that high.” 

Index values in Wisconsin have exceeded the records set by wildfires in June 2023, DNR spokesperson Craig Czarnecki said in an email, noting that the figures “will still need to be quality assured.” At that time, levels peaked at 273, which means concentrations in Superior and the Milwaukee area have more than doubled. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends setting up a portable air cleaner or filter in a room that can be closed off from outside air and setting your air conditioner  to recirculate mode if possible or close the outdoor intake damper. 

Fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, is a main pollutant released from wildfire smoke that can enter the bloodstream. Dr. Joan Schiller, a member of Healthy Climate Wisconsin and retired medical oncologist, told WPR this can exacerbate lung conditions.

“I don’t think people realize how far away you can be from the fire itself and still have health problems,” Schiller said. “These health problems typically manifest themselves as respiratory problems, such as exacerbation of COPD or asthma or emphysema.” 

How can I check the air quality in my area?

The Environmental Protection Agency monitors the air around the country and compiles an air quality index, or AQI.

Here’s what to know about the index and how to keep tabs on your area, especially in U.S. regions dealing with smoke from Canadian wildfires.

What does the air quality index measure? 

The index rates how clean or polluted the air is each day. The EPA uses this measure to keep tabs on five kinds of air pollutants. The main concern from the wildfire smoke is fine particle pollution. These particles are tiny enough to get deep into the lungs. They can cause short-term problems like coughing and itchy eyes and, in the long run, can affect the lungs and heart.

What do the numbers and colors mean? 

The index categories typically only run from zero to 500 – although levels have reached well above 500 in multiple parts of the state. The higher the number, the worse the air quality. That range is broken down into six color-coded categories. Green or yellow — in the zero to 100 range — the air is pretty clear. Once it gets up to orange, the air quality could be a concern for sensitive groups like children, older adults or those with health conditions.

In the red and purple zones, the air quality is considered unhealthy for everyone.

And if the index gets to maroon — at 301 or above — pollution levels are hazardous.

At these high levels, take precautions to avoid breathing in the dangerous air. That can mean reducing your outdoor activities, running air purifiers inside and wearing a well-fitting mask like an N95 when you’re outside.

What’s the air quality right now? 

Check AirNow.gov, which updates every hour. The site shows a real-time map of the air quality across the country and also includes a forecast for the day ahead. The map pulls in measurements from a network of air monitoring stations across the country. States and cities may also offer more local guidance.

How long will smoke last in Wisconsin? 

According to Sheppard and the National Weather Service (NWS), a southerly wind on Friday means smoke is anticipated to retreat from west to east  – likely bringing an end to the advisory for much of the state. 

“With those southwest winds, the air is going to get kind of clearer and healthier in a southwest to northeast manner,” Sheppard said. “Areas further north and east in Wisconsin are going to be most likely to hang on to that smoke.” 

Areas along Lake Superior may also need to have the advisory extended, NWS said. But Sheppard said winds could bring back a second wave of smoke to the rest of the state as soon as Saturday. 

“The weather models tentatively are telling us that the second batch of smoke could be as strong, or perhaps even worse,” he said. 

The Associated Press contributed reporting, as did Hongyu Liu of Wisconsin Watch.

Wildfire smoke brings hazardous air quality in Wisconsin. Here’s how to stay safe 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 UW Extension informational session will look at the promises and controversies surrounding data centers, from economic development to water use and energy demands.

The post Forum to examine pros and cons of data centers — and how to recognize one when you see it appeared first on WPR.

The Wisconsin DNR issued an air quality advisory Tuesday that runs through 11 a.m. Thursday, which could be extended.

The post Wisconsin sees hazardous levels of pollution as fires burn in Canada and Minnesota appeared first on WPR.

Communities that ask for federal assistance when climate disasters hit can’t count on that help to arrive. That increasingly common reality was reviewed in a recent report by Wisconsin Policy Forum, which focused on the historic floods in the state last August, finding that federal aid to help rebuild public infrastructure damaged by the record-breaking storms fell short of what was needed. 

The report took a close look at the Milwaukee area, where 14.6 inches of rain set Wisconsin’s all-time record for the largest rainfall in a 24-hour period. “As a result, the Menomonee, Milwaukee, and Kinnickinnic rivers all overflowed, and rainwater flooded homes, streets, businesses, and schools in low-lying areas. Recovery efforts continue today and have been expanded to address the impacts of another massive storm that hit the area in April 2026.”  Those storms earlier this year also dropped record-breaking amounts of rain in Green Bay and Wausau, and caused historic flooding along the Wolf River basin in Shiocton, New London, and Porterfield. Researchers have long warned that increased risks of flooding and more severe storms would increase in Wisconsin due to climate change, which the administration of President Donald Trump has downplayed and dismissed as a hoax. 

Not only did the August storms fill up basements and damage homes, but there was also extensive damage to roads, parks, bridges and other public infrastructure. In and around Milwaukee, damage to public property owned by the county property, public schools, the city of Milwaukee and 18 other localities came to at least $34.7 million. That included $10 million each for Milwaukee’s public school and sewage district, as well as $1.4 million in damage calculated by county officials, half of which was road-related damage. City officials estimated $1.7 million in damage, plus $5 million in additional costs related to cleaning up debris. Wauwatosa, one of Milwaukee County’s surrounding suburban communities, estimated $6.8 million in damage to city parks, roads and buildings. 

All in all, about $240 million in damage to private and public property was left behind by the August storms in the Milwaukee-area. After deploying the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Trump administration approved $210 million in aid to help individuals rebuild, but would not provide funding to support local governments, despite multiple requests from state and local leaders. 

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers immediately declared a state of emergency after the August storms, requesting a federal major disaster declaration for Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Door, Grant, and Ozaukee counties. Evers made the request both for individual and public assistance, the Wisconsin Policy Forum report notes. Over 26,000 individual damage reports were received throughout the state as the damage was being assessed. FEMA concluded that the 2025 flooding was “sufficient in severity to warrant a disaster declaration in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Ozaukee counties but only authorized assistance to individuals and said that aid to public entities was not warranted based on the severity of the disaster,” the report states. “This meant that only individuals in these counties would be eligible for assistance and that governments have not received aid.”

It is rare for the federal government to approve one form of disaster aid while denying another, according to the report, with only 2.7% of named disasters since the year 2000 resulting in individual assistance being approved but public assistance being denied. In 2008, when severe storms and flooding hit the Milwaukee area, the federal government approved $4.5 million in assistance to local governments, as well as another $10.3 million when severe storms hit in 2010. “Milwaukee County has also received $6.1 million to help with costs associated with snowstorm cleanup since 2000,” the Wisconsin Policy Forum noted.

Earlier this month, $22.6 million in assistance was provided to several counties. President Trump used the allocation to promote Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany as a candidate for governor of Wisconsin. 

Local governments have tried to pick up the slack, but at a high cost. Normally the state distributes $1 million to $3 million to local governments to cover disaster costs, but in 2025 the damage was so extensive that $16.9 million was needed to cover damage claims, the highest annual amount in records going back to the year 2000. “This was due both to the extent of the flooding in August 2025 and the denial of federal funding that potentially could have covered at least some of these costs,” the report states. Nearly 46,000 residents in Waukesha, Washington and Milwaukee counties applied for the individual assistance following the August storms, and as of June aid has been distributed to 36,800 of eligible applicants. 

Protecting against the effects of climate change 

Some local governments including  Milwaukee County have undertaken policies to help adapt to the effects of climate change. “The sewage district has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into flood control systems in the area, including concrete infrastructure like the Deep Tunnel system as well as green infrastructure efforts such as wetland preservation, the reduction of hard surfaces such as concrete that create runoff, and other methods to limit the speed and volume of flood waters,” the Wisconsin Policy Forum reports. Without those measures, the August floods could have been “much worse,” according to the Policy Forum. “However, it’s clear from the two storms in the last 10 months that there are still thousands of structures in the area that are vulnerable to flooding.”

Recovering from disasters causes hardship. And more frequent severe weather is likely to bring on more disasters, even as, the Policy Forum found, “the availability of federal disaster relief has become more difficult to predict.” When the federal government decides to reject local communities’ calls for help, “state residents have limited recourse beyond petitioning FEMA and Congress to provide assistance.”

The report recommends that state leaders authorize additional funding to pay for disaster relief using state tax revenue. Attempts to do this by Evers and other lawmakers have previously been  rejected by the Republican-controlled Legislature. State and local leaders could also make investments in flood control and mitigation efforts and expand green infrastructure. Developing community-based insurance policies to address “these unpredictable and increasingly likely disasters” is another solution the Policy Forum suggests. 

“State and local leaders have limited control over when and where floods strike, but they can be prepared to respond when they occur,” the report concludes. “They can also reduce flood risk by investing in infrastructure that slows, stores, and redirects water.” Even these efforts may still be overwhelmed by the scale of disasters. And with the federal government demonstrating that, for whatever reason, aid isn’t guaranteed to come, Wisconsin may need to become “more self-sufficient” in responding to future disasters. 

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued an air quality alert for parts of Minnesota, including the Twin Cities metro area, for Tuesday through Friday, as wildfires in the northern parts of the state and Canada continue. 

Hot temperatures and poor air quality can aggravate pre-existing health conditions and pose risks to people with asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as pregnant women and children. 

At extreme levels, smoke inhalation can lead to asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, so MPCA is advising at-risk Minnesotans to stay indoors. If you have symptoms, call your healthcare provider or 911 in an emergency. 

The MPCA advises against “vigorous” outdoor activities, like sports, which could exacerbate any serious health or lung effects. 

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota indefinitely closed on Tuesday as more than 20 wildfires have broken out as a result of lightning strikes and dry air caused by the ongoing heat wave. Evacuations are currently underway in the Boundary Waters. At least 17 people have been rescued with no reported injuries. 

Smoke from the Superior National Forest is expected to head south over the next 24 hours.

Look for hazy skies as smoke moves across northeastern Minnesota to the southern and western parts of the state. 

Even for those without preexisting health conditions, hazardous air quality can lead to shortness of breath, irritated eyes and nose, coughing and chest tightening. 

Smoky air is expected in Brainerd, Alexandria, Hinckley, St. Cloud, Winona, Moorhead, International Falls, Two Harbors, Hibbing, Ely, Duluth, and the Tribal Nations of Mille Lacs, Prairie Island, Leech Lake, White Earth, Red Lake, Grand Portage and Fond du Lac. 

Hazardous levels of smoke are expected in Two Harbors and Grant Portage; the MPCA advises residents there to avoid any outdoor activities and stay indoors. 

For Minnesotans, climate change-induced smoky skies and poor air quality are becoming a near annual summer event; the state Department of Natural Resources says 2025 was likely the smokiest year in five decades or more.  

Reading Time: 7 minutes

On an idyllic evening at the Trempealeau Hotel, the Mississippi River is as much a draw as the musical act that graces its outdoor stage.

If concert-goers gathered on the hotel lawn are lucky — and they often are — they’ll get to see a sorbet sky before the sun tucks behind the bluffs and a train thundering through with a horn-blast hello. The hotel has watched over the river since 1888.

Amy Werner and Jörg Droll, who have owned the hotel since 2012, have seen a surge of interest in their part of the river since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in outdoor recreation opportunities. The village of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, with a population of about 1,900, has leaned into the phenomenon.

Just as the river’s path has changed over time, so have communities along it changed and adapted.

The Mississippi has been a vital resource for Indigenous people, a source of employment for fishermen, trappers, boat captains and builders of the locks and dams, and more recently, the main attraction on the beloved Great River Road, a 3,000-mile drive from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico that draws millions of Americans every year.

Along this segment of the Mississippi, river communities are exploring different ways to bring people in, now that the days of commercial fishing, trapping and similar river industries have, for the most part, faded. Many are courting tourists, from those driving the length of the River Road to those simply day-tripping from the Twin Cities. Some are emphasizing the ease and nostalgia of small-town life.

They’re all doing so in the face of the headwinds hitting rural areas across the country — declining tax bases, workforce challenges and aging populations. That means it’s essential not just to attract visitors for a moment, but to get those who live there to stay — something that requires serious introspection and vision for the future.

Still, one thing hasn’t changed. The river is the centerpiece. It’s the reason these communities are here, even as they redefine what life on the river means. They’re counting on others to see that too.

“Without the river, the hotel could not exist,” Droll said. “(It’s) part of daily life for us. Every waking minute.”

Tourism drives success in Mississippi River towns

About halfway between Trempealeau and the Twin Cities is Stockholm, a Wisconsin village of less than 100 people that explodes with visitors on summer Saturdays.

The draw is Stockholm Pie, a charming bakery that started as a weekend gig and has now been named America’s best pie shop, twice. The shop’s head baker begins the day between 1 and 3 a.m., preparing up to 70 pies daily in addition to dozens of other sweet treats baked fresh. Owner Alan Nugent’s slice of choice is the sour cream raisin.

Stockholm “has always been the spot,” said Nugent, who first opened an art gallery in the village in 2004 and has since given over his career to pie. He believes its proximity to the Twin Cities is critical — 80% of customers who come through the shop’s door are from there.

More than a decade ago, Nugent decided it was time to share the wealth and formed the West Coast of Wisconsin, a marketing association for the five communities that sit on Lake Pepin — Bay City, Stockholm, Maiden Rock, Pepin and Nelson.

The goal, loosely based on what communities have done in Door County, the popular Midwest vacation destination on Lake Michigan, is for each village to have its own personality and to support the others at the same time. The association has invested significant energy into making the area a destination, Nugent said.

It’s paying off. The area has become a wedding hot spot that can pull hundreds of people on a single weekend. To serve that need, high-end properties have been converted into luxury vacation rentals, Nugent said.

Being a tourist town comes with its own challenges. So many homes have been turned into rentals, it’s hard for a person to actually move to the area, he said. But the change is inevitable.

“The world has changed dramatically,” Nugent said. “Tourism supports a lot of jobs and brings a whole lot of tax revenue.”

According to Travel Wisconsin’s latest economic impact report, seven of eight counties bordering the river saw an increase in direct visitor spending from 2024 to 2025.

In Cassville, less than an hour upriver from Wisconsin’s border with Illinois, tourism director Tracy Fishnick said the village is focusing on visitors “to help keep our community alive.”

Fishnick said village residents know they need tourists, and the river brings them in. Two summers ago, unexpected flooding brought that to a screeching halt — even the iconic Cassville ferry had to pause, and Fishnick said businesses felt it.

The village is also pitching visitors on becoming permanent residents. It received a grant this spring from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to offer financial incentives for the next two years for out-of-state residents to move to the Cassville area.

“So many people think of small towns and they’re just like, ‘Oh, they don’t have much’ … once you come and spend a weekend or a day here, you grab some food, it’s cheaper,” she said. “You’re going to have a bartender or a waiter that will sit and get to know you.”

Fishnick said public spaces on the riverfront are part of the village’s appeal, in contrast to communities where that area is largely private property.

“We get so many people to just come walk, and sit there and watch the barges,” she said.

Communities lean into nostalgia, grapple with difficult history

In Fountain City, about an hour downriver from Stockholm, what’s old is new again.

Mike Adank moved back to his hometown from New York last fall to take over the Corner Store, an ice cream and soda pop shop with long-standing roots in the community. He whips up sweet concoctions using the building’s 1960s-era soda fountain, which he had painstakingly refurbished.

The shop is full of nostalgic nods: a candy table near the cash register, old newspaper clippings on the walls, Beach Boys over the speakers. Older people are eager to reminisce, Adank said, and young people are glad to have a place besides school to hang out.

“We’ve got all these really cool stories and buildings and history. That was important to me when I came back,” Adank said. “My parents were like, ‘What are you going to call it?’ I was like, ‘It’s the Corner Store.’ That’s what it always was to me, and that’s what it has to be.”

The community has welcomed his venture, he said, signaling another old habit that’s come around: shopping local.

In the 1980s, he recalled, Fountain City lost businesses like a grocer and hardware store as people began to make the 15-minute drive to Winona, Minnesota, for small conveniences.

Now, residents recognize the city flatlines if people don’t invest, Adank said. It’s given them – him included – new momentum to try.

History isn’t always sweet, though. Across the river, that’s something Nicky Buck knows well.

Buck, an enrolled member of the Prairie Island Indian Community, was born and raised on Prairie Island near what is now Red Wing, Minnesota, where her Bdewakantunwan Band of Eastern Dakota ancestors lived long before white settlers arrived. Other tribal nations once came to the Mississippi River valley for its lush abundance of plant medicines, Buck said.

For a long time, the relationship between the tribe and the city of Red Wing was strained due to intolerance of Indigenous people, she said. Her uncle, Art Owen, and his father, Amos, led early efforts to change that, which the community continues today. 

In 2022, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding to share information and give tribal members a seat at the table. That year, Buck and others began the Honoring Dakota Project, which seeks to bridge cultures and create a unified world rooted in Dakota lifeways. A mural unveiled in 2023 depicts Chief Red Wing and the sacred nearby bluff site He Mni Can.

The Honoring Dakota Project has helped facilitate viewings of the tribe’s bison herd, an Indigenous art market and, in 2024, an inaugural wacipi, or powwow. It has also played a role in critical safety upgrades, like the construction of an overpass that opened in 2025 providing a safe way on and off Prairie Island over one of the state’s most dangerous rail intersections.

The work has been healing for Buck’s community.

“We’re making sure there is a place for the next seven generations,” she said, referencing an Indigenous principle about making decisions today that will benefit multiple generations to come.

The river makes everything work

The Mississippi River itself is always changing — in some ways, not for the better. Buck worries about high levels of PFAS, pesticides and plastics that could rob her community of their lifeways. Others are concerned that backwaters are disappearing as sediment fills in from upstream.

Still, the river remains a powerful reason for these communities’ existence.

A little over an hour down the road from Fountain City, Mark Clements and his son Conner run Clements Fishing Barge in Genoa.The river has been integral to the family business for 90 years.

Clements’ grandfather fashioned an early version of their raft using leftover construction materials from the creation of the nearby lock and dam in 1936. The aim of the business hasn’t changed — providing an affordable way for people without their own boats to fish the river.

It’s a fishing destination, Clements said, which is good for Genoa, which reaps the benefits of people spending money to stay. On a nice spring weekend, as many as 100 people might be out on the barge. Helping kids connect to the river through fishing is their priority, he said — so much so that he’s never increased the cost for a child to fish for the day.

Fishing outfits like Clements’ are a clear connection between the river’s past and present, one appreciated by longtime “river rats” like Max Bachhuber. Bachhuber ran the Great Alma Fishing Float in Alma, just north of Fountain City, from 1963 through much of the 1980s.

When businesses would close for the day, Bachhuber recalled, people would spill out onto the river to fish for their dinner. Now, it’s mostly for sport, he said, and the population of Alma is largely retirees. But he loves it despite its changes.

“My favorite thing is to be able to look out and see (the Mississippi River) every day,” Bachhuber said. “If you go away, you’re going to come back. You’re going to miss it.”

Whether river communities are shrinking or expanding, have momentum or are struggling to find a vision, are leaning on their history or learning to reconcile it, Bachhuber’s take is one shared by many: Life on the river is unlike anywhere else.

At the Trempealeau Hotel, Werner and Droll feel that singularity when they serve up river catfish at their restaurant, when they watch a sunset, or when a band plays to a sold-out crowd under a full moon.

Through the challenges that may come, they’ll always have this place.

“It’s just pure pleasure,” Werner said.

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 Ag & Water Desk network. Sign up for our newsletters to get our news straight to your inbox.

The Mississippi River built these towns. Now tourism is helping sustain them. 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.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, issued an executive order Tuesday that puts a moratorium on the construction of large-scale data centers.

The pause, which will last up to a year, is the nation’s first statewide ban on data centers, which have drawn increasing concern from lawmakers and citizens based on their impact on electricity prices and the energy grid.

“As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” Hochul said in a statement.

Technology companies have invested billions of dollars to build data centers all across the country, driven in part by the computing demands from artificial intelligence.

In her executive order, Hochul directed the state Department of Public Service to issue no new permits for large-scale data centers for a  year. During that period, the agency will conduct an environmental analysis on the impacts of data centers, along with a proceeding to “require data centers to either pay more for their energy or supply their own.”

New York lawmakers passed a more extensive data center moratorium last month, but Hochul has not said whether she will sign the bill.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, vetoed a measure earlier this year that would have been the first statewide data center ban.

In a news release, Hochul also directed the state’s economic development agency to develop a framework that local communities can use to negotiate with tech companies that seek to construct data centers. That framework will focus on infrastructure improvements, child care investments, direct financial support and labor and wage standards.

She also announced plans for a fund that would require data centers to invest in New York’s grid infrastructure and clean energy supply. And she called on lawmakers to repeal the state’s sales tax exemptions for large data centers.

Across the country, data centers have drawn vocal opposition at local public meetings and in state capitols. Several cities and counties will vote on ballot measures this year to restrict the development of new data centers.

Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org. 

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The temperatures in Christina Joann Rainey’s home reached 82 degrees recently.  The single mother from rural Carroll County in West Tennessee has paid to repair the 16-year-old home air conditioning system in the house she inherited from her grandparents multiple times, but it’s now beyond saving. She can’t afford the estimated $7,500 price tag to replace it.

As the National Weather Service warned of extreme and major heat risk in Tennessee this month, Rainey began calling any agencies and organizations she could think of to seek help. But she said she struggled to find programs available in her area that she is eligible for, other than loan opportunities that she believes will be too financially burdensome in the long run.

Rainey and her 15-year-old daughter sought relief by sitting in the car or traveling to a nearby Dollar General to get lemonade and temporarily cool off. But Rainey said she worries about being away from home for too long because of her Australian shepherd and 13-year-old cat. Rainey has been trying to keep them cool with cooling pads.

“I’m scared that if I leave, they could have heat stroke,” she said.

As high temperatures and humidity spiked “feels like” temperatures to more than 110 degrees in some areas of Tennessee, the National Weather Service urged people to stay indoors, hydrate and use air conditioning as “fans may not be adequate.”

But for an estimated 49,722 Tennessee households, air conditioning is not an option. Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in May estimated that about 2% of state households have no access to any kind of air conditioning. 

In other parts of the Mississippi River basin, the share is still higher. In Arkansas, almost 3% of homes lack AC. In Minnesota and Ohio, the estimate approaches 4%. And in Wisconsin, over 7% of households do not have air conditioning. 

A day after suffering through those extreme temperatures, a local air conditioning technician loaned Rainey a window unit, providing some relief. 

“I’m so thankful for that, because he didn’t have to do that, and that was free of charge,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.”

Resources and support programs vary at local level

Lack of air conditioning is a growing concern for health officials across the Mississippi River basin.

In the Milwaukee area, where about one in 10 homes lack air conditioning, heat indexes soared over 100 degrees during a recent hot spell. Health officials say many homes without AC are in places that have been identified as most vulnerable to hazards like heat, due to compounding factors such as poverty, lack of transportation and poor housing quality.

“Lack of air conditioning is not an isolated issue — it overlaps with so many other issues. Heat is a multiplier of existing vulnerabilities,” said Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County’s chief health policy adviser. “That’s the reason why individuals living in these communities feel heat so much differently.”

Christopher Uejio, a professor at Florida State University who did his own estimate last year of residential air conditioning in the U.S., said the census estimates may overestimate air conditioning prevalence in rural areas and underestimate it in cities, based on the data that was used. Still, he said, it’s important to have this kind of data available.

“When I lived in Wisconsin, we had one to two extreme heat events per summer. You could just open the windows, put up a box fan, and you’d be fine,” Uejio said. “As these heat events get longer and more protracted, more expensive adaptations have to be considered.”

Resources available to people without access to air conditioning vary at the local level.  As temperatures hovered in the 90s in Tennessee in early July, an online tracker published by the Tennessee Emergency Management Authority showed nine cooling centers open across the state.

Programs providing free fans, air conditioning window units or other weatherization assistance also vary. A summer cooling program in Nashville provides free fans or air conditioning units to eligible older county residents, families with children under age 6, and disabled residents with medical conditions affected by extreme heat from May 1 through Aug. 31. 

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Home Uplift program helps eligible households make their homes more energy efficient by sealing gaps, insulating ductwork and replacing aging air conditioners. Participants in the program must meet income qualifications, live in a single-family home that meets certain requirements and be a customer of a local power company that participates in the program. 

When Rainey checked her eligibility for the Home Uplift program, she received a message that TVA is not accepting applications in her area.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Health recommended reaching out to county governments and local emergency management agencies for resources.

A deeper look at the U.S. Census Bureau’s experimental data

The U.S. Census Bureau released its experimental Local Air Conditioning Estimates dataset in response to requests for more detailed information on air conditioning access as an indicator of heat vulnerability, according to the bureau’s website.

The dataset includes information from American Housing Surveys from 2019 through 2023, along with data from the American Community Survey from the same period.

Air conditioning access is not directly measured in the American Community Survey. While the American Housing Survey does ask if a home has an air conditioning unit, this survey wasn’t designed to be used at a granular geographical level. The U.S. Census Bureau used a machine learning model and the American Housing Survey data to “determine if a household in the ACS potentially lacks an air conditioning unit,” according to the bureau’s methodology. 

The margin of error for Tennessee’s estimated 49,772 households without air conditioning is plus or minus 3,972 households.

This data may also fail to capture the circumstances of people like Rainey, who may have had working air conditioning at the time that data was collected, but no longer do. It also does not consider other factors that might limit access to air conditioning, like the cost burden of operating window air conditioning units.

Rainey said her mother is in a similar situation — her home air conditioning is no longer in working order and uses window units sparingly because of the electricity cost.

“Before it got this hot, she was trying to avoid (using) it because it gets so bad on electricity … but I think this last week or so, she’s had to use it because she didn’t have a choice. She was using fans and doing everything she could,” Rainey said.

Madeline Heim of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

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 Ag & Water Desk network. Sign up for our newsletters to get our news straight to your inbox.

Census model estimates more than 800,000 Mississippi River basin households lack air conditioning 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.