Earlier this year, one line in some public documents I requested from the state sent me down the path of reporting this story. It deals with a Guatemalan farmworker who came to Michigan to work for a blueberry farm and died days after his 22nd birthday. www.mlive.com/news/2025/12...

These DTE customers dealt with fried appliances and property damage after power surges. The utility denied fault, but offered them "customer relations payments." To accept, they'd have to keep quiet about their experience. www.mlive.com/news/2025/10...

Without disaster aid, one northern MI power cooperative estimates its ice storm recovery costs amount to $4,500 per member household. Whitmer is appealing Trump's denial of some categories of aid, including utility relief. www.mlive.com/news/2025/08...

The Trump administration doubled down on its use of emergency powers to keep a Michigan coal plant open last night, ordering it run through November while facing a slew of legal challenges. www.mlive.com/environment/...

They had the opportunity, but Michigan game regulators did NOT restore a year-round coyote hunting season, as some outlets are reporting. They committed to modifying rules in the future, targeting "out-of-season" killing of nuisance coyotes. www.mlive.com/environment/...

The AI boom relies on power-hungry data centers. As utilities line up to serve them, some worry the costs will fall on all of our power bills. This NYT story cites several examples. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...

This year's ice storm in northern Michigan left many without power for weeks. Now, it's jacking up electric bills. Residents worry disaster aid won't make them whole. "There's fewer of us to bit this bullet," one said. www.mlive.com/environment/...

5 years after the catastrophic Edenville Dam failure, Michigan is still trying to fend off lawsuits claiming the state enabled the flooding and failed to take steps to stop the breach. @garretellison.bsky.social and I dug into the claims. www.mlive.com/environment/...

As promised, homebuilders are taking to court to stop new, more energy efficient building codes from taking effect in Michigan. Supporters say the updates will save thousands on homeowners' utility bills. The building industry warns of upfront costs. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Recently, I dug into an issue that's been on my mind since I started reporting on utilities in Michigan. Why are our electric rates so high? Read on for some potential answers, and why your utility will claim your power costs are actually below average. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Keeping an old coal plant open under a Trump order, especially one that was days from closing, will bring big costs for the utility that owns it, experts say. While the details are still slim, it promises to burden utility bills. Here's how. www.mlive.com/environment/...

The Trump administration has ordered Consumers Energy's J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant to stay open using emergency authority. State regulators say there's no emergency in Michigan, and the move increases power costs for homes and businesses. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan needs to do more fighting fire with fire, lighting controlled burns to reduce the risk of massive uncontrolled blazes in a warming world. My colleague Sheri McWhirter got up close with the efforts to burn more in the name of healthier forests. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Five years ago, catastrophic dam failures in Michigan sparked a reckoning about the risks aging dams pose. Politicians promised action. But despite dire warnings in the aftermath, a suite of key safety reforms remain shelved. w/ @garretellison.bsky.social www.mlive.com/environment/...

Some Friday news for Michigan hunters: The state is backtracking on controversial limits on the special liberty and independence hunts for youth and hunters with disabilities. In the U.P., "doe with a bow" is back for the first time in a decade. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan's two largest utilities are entering the fourth year of a legal battle with a contractor they allege botched a half billion-dollar upgrade to a big hydroelectric plant on Lake Michigan. I dug into the case and how it could affect customers. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Mandatory park passes with vehicle registration and increases in hunting and fishing license fees are part of a package of bills seeking to fill shortfalls for the Michigan DNR. Not everything would go up; it would make hunting antlerless deer cheaper. www.mlive.com/environment/...

The state of Michigan owns more dams than any other single owner. On average, they're 62 years old. As more fail, a big infrastructure bill is coming due. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Hydrogen is hyped as a 100% clean fuel that could help slash carbon emissions from industry and transportation. In Michigan, it turns out there could be lots of it under our feet. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Update: After we published this story, the EPA rescinded the termination of at least $40M in Michigan grants, saying the terminations were "accidentally sent." www.mlive.com/environment/...

A $20M EPA grant to fashion Detroit soup kitchens and food pantries in to "resilience hubs" that can weather power outages is on the Trump admin's chopping block. We confirmed the termination of more than $42M in Michigan EJ grants. www.mlive.com/environment/...

GOP reps say Michigan's clean energy law doesn't work for the Upper Peninsula. Their solution? Call natural gas power plants "clean" and "renewable" under the law, a big carveout for the U.P. www.mlive.com/environment/...

There are ~240 energy projects — many solar farms — lined up to connect to the power grid in MI. They can wait for years. Many are canceled or face high costs to plug in. The bottleneck is bad news for climate, reliability and power bills, experts say. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Trump's EPA is looking to give dirty coal power plants a reprieve from pollution rules. While there are reasons to expect Michigan might be insulated from the deregulatory push, advocates say it's a health and climate threat. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Last year, a decades-old backup generator burst into flames at one of Michigan's six fish hatcheries, jeopardizing millions of fish. The DNR says its a symptom of a wildlife funding crisis, though not all hunters and anglers are so sure. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan's two largest utilities will be subject to a carrot-and-stick system involving $10 million in annual penalties and incentives as part of a state effort to speed a fix to their outage problems www.mlive.com/environment/...

Advocates worry power-hungry data centers coming to Michigan increase the risk residents could be left on the hook for utility costs to serve them. Consumers Energy says its protecting customers. I wrote about its plan. www.mlive.com/environment/...

"Downey said her supervisor fought back tears while handing her the papers. Above her signature on the form, she wrote: 'Received and accepted under duress.'" My colleague @garretellison.bsky.social shows how Trump's federal worker firings are landing in Michigan. www.mlive.com/environment/...

This week @rosekellywhite.bsky.social published a deep investigation into the death of a migrant farmworker who fell ill picking asparagus in a Michigan field, looking into allegations pesticides or heat were to blame. www.mlive.com/public-inter...

Michigan has more underground natural gas storage than any other state. A small number of landowners tap directly into these reservoirs, and some get "free gas." MLive mapped them using records I got from the state. www.mlive.com/environment/...

GOP reps, in control of the Michigan House again, have introduced bills to prevent big solar and wind projects from taking a new pathway to get permitted at the state instead of by local communities. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Fewer tires in the fire? Burning spent tires in power plants and paper mills has been a big disposal method in Michigan. But it's waning, and a change in state law only hastened the decline. I took a look the state of the recycling/reuse industry. www.mlive.com/environment/...

DTE electric rates will rise in early February, as regulators and the company reported some progress on reliability while watchdogs said the utility hasn't gone far enough. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan utility regulators will issue a final decision in DTE's request to raise electric rates by $456 million tomorrow, likely approving a smaller rate hike. The proposal had its detractors at a public meeting in Detroit last year. www.mlive.com/environment/...

In northern Michigan, the state plans to clear 400+ acres of forestland to make way for solar panels, despite some research finding this kind of switch would mean a net growth in emissions, counter to climate goals, my colleague Sheri McWhirter reports. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan's Upper Peninsula closed its coal power plants more than a decade before the rest of the state, slashing emissions. What comes next could be harder. Why does it matter? The U.P. is a "microcosm" for the challenges of the energy transition, some say. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Consumers is looking to ramp up natural gas rates. The ask stands out in the context of recent bill increases, watchdogs say. www.mlive.com/environment/...

ICYMI: More big transmission line projects are headed Michigan's way, potentially setting up clashes with rural landowners along the routes. Some say developers should use highway corridors instead. www.mlive.com/environment/...

Some in rural Michigan don't pay a gas bill. They haven't in almost 70 years, but that could be about to change. 🧵 www.mlive.com/environment/...

Michigan "recreation passports" (the "P" on your vehicle registration sticker) could be the default under legislation from Dem lawmakers looking to boost funding for the state park system. www.mlive.com/environment/...

And here’s the recap of yesterday’s big rally on the Diag. www.mlive.com/news/ann-arb...

Economists and immigration advocates I spoke to said Trump's promises of mass deportation could mean crops left to rot in the field, farm shutdowns and higher prices. There's "immense fear" among farmworkers and immigrants in Michigan right now, one said. www.mlive.com/public-inter...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promised to fix the damn roads and poured billions into infrastructure. But how do we know when that's happened? www.mlive.com/politics/202...

Sometimes I get to flex my environmental studies degree and write about cow poop, much to everyone's delight: www.mlive.com/news/kalamaz...

A Michigan utility buys power from 1950s-era coal plants whose largest owner happens to be its parent company. It's a bad deal for the power company's customers, consumer watchdogs and enviro groups say. www.mlive.com/environment/...

In 2020, two employees at a Sanilac County manufacturer were hospitalized with Legionnaires' disease. Three years later, legionella grew again – killing one worker and sickening two others after the company failed to mitigate the deadly bacteria. www.mlive.com/public-inter...

What's up, Bluesky? I cover energy and utilities for MLive, and I'll try to post my stories here. I'm often trying to translate nuggets in obscure regulatory filings into headlines. Here's one: Consumers says big wind, solar buildouts won't mean extra charges on bills. www.mlive.com/environment/...