Environmental News

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

Getting to Green: Minnesota’s energy future

Getting to Green is an MPR News series that shares stories about Minnesota’s clean energy transition, including what needs to be done to get there.

Submit a question or story for Getting to Green here.

Climate Cast

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

A western Minnesota meat processing plant has been given a $20,000 civil penalty for discharges of blood- and manure-contaminated water.
Feds sue BP, other companies in Gulf oil spill
The Justice Department has sued BP Exploration and Production Inc. and eight other companies in the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The Senate is due to vote Wednesday on the controversial deal to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits that both due to expire soon. Minnesota's U.S. Senators and others successfully pushed to add into that bill an extension of ethanol subsidies. Minnesota is the country's fourth largest producer of ethanol. MPR's Cathy Wurzer spoke with Mike Jerke, the general manager of Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company.
What's next for the environmental movement?
The Cancun Climate Change Conference has received little attention, and efforts to pass a cap and trade bill through Congress appear to be dormant. Meanwhile, recent polling has shown climate change to be low on people's list of concerns. Has the moment for action on climate change passed?
Minnesota and North Dakota are at odds over the environmental costs of generating electricity. The dispute could end up in court, and it's not the first time the two states squared off over this issue.