Illinois Commerce Commission Chair Doug Scott presides over a commission meeting in Chicago in late January. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

Consumers likely to pay more for infrastructure improvements

The plans propose billions of dollars in spending and lay out the companies’ plans for supporting the state’s climate goals, including the transition away from greenhouse gas emitting energy generation over the next 20 years. The ICC is now reviewing the plans in a process likely to last the rest of the year. 

Rae-Ann Eifert, a lake monitor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, braved sub-freezing temperatures to gather buckets of water for testing off a Lake Michigan breakwater in Racine, Wis., on Feb. 28, 2024, as part of an effort across the Great Lakes to understand the effects of an iceless winter. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

As climate change accelerates, scientists are scrambling to understand how iceless winters could affect the world's largest freshwater system.

February 2024 was the warmest on record in Chicago. The lakefront seen from the Museum Campus, Feb. 27, 2024. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

It’s official, Chicago: February 2024 was the warmest in 153 years of recording keeping.

Flooding in Chicago on July 6, 2023. (WTTW News)
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Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell and their largest trade association, the American Petroleum Institute.

Baby leatherback sea turtles head to the sea at sunset on Indonesia’s Lhoknga Beach in February 2023. (Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images)

Of the 1,189 creatures listed by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, more than one in five are threatened. They include species from all sorts of animal groups — whales, sharks, elephants, wild cats, raptors, birds and insects, among others.

A monarch butterfly cozies up to milkweed in a Chicago yard. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Aster Hasle, a conservation scientist at the Field Museum, said, “Our role in the Midwest is to build that population back up. There is a lot that we can do here to provide habitat that’s going to help.”

(Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels)
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Advocates say the proposed ordinance aims to combat climate change and reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, while critics believe it would increase cost and risk reliability.

Alaina Harkness, the executive director of the water tech nonprofit Current, appears at a Chicago news conference on Jan. 30, 2024, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker. (Dilpreet Raju  / Capitol News Illinois)

The U.S. National Science Foundation awarded the grant to Current Innovation NFP, a nonprofit “innovation hub” whose mission is to “solve pressing water challenges caused by climate change and pollution.” 

(WTTW News)

While similar measures are already in place in New York City, Los Angeles and dozens of smaller cities, it is unclear whether the push for Chicago to join those cities will succeed, even with the backing of Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 and this year. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images / FILE)

On Tuesday, the clock was again set at 90 seconds to midnight — the closest to the hour it has ever been, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the clock in 1947.

Two people ride bicycles in Chicago on Dec. 28, 2023. (WTTW News)

It’s winter in Chicago, but where’s the cold weather and snow? December’s temperatures are averaging about nine degrees higher than normal.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Kamran Jebreili / AP Photo)

The EPA said the rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits.

A map submitted to the Illinois Commerce Commission by Wolf Carbon Solutions showing their preferred route for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline. (Photo taken from ICC testimony.)

While portions of the pipeline’s plan have yet to be finalized, it was generally proposed to run from two ethanol production facilities owned by Archer Daniels Midland in Iowa and terminate near Decatur, home to ADM’s North American headquarters.

Invasive species like teasel could use warmer hardiness zones to even greater advantage. (Beauty of Nature / Pixabay)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a new plant hardiness zone map, and significant swaths of the country — Chicago included — are now in warmer zones.

Organic material is demonstrated being loaded into a digester at a GreenWaste Zanker Resource Recovery Facility in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo / Jeff Chiu)

Tackling food waste is a daunting challenge that the U.S. has taken on before. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the EPA set a goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, but the country has made little progress.

(WTTW News)

A new report from the Brushwood Center found Lake County residents face significant race-based disparities in health outcomes, environmental quality and access to nature.