The news was very bad on Friday when state and Federal agencies admitted that tests show invasive Asian carp have evaded an electrical barrier intended to prevent the fish from gaining access to Lake Michigan, and eventually...

We have been awash with an array of unhappy water stories in this region of late. On the surface they are unrelated ... scary fish ... E. coli contamination ... improperly regulated...

This week EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told NPR that the "EPA is back on the job."

And here in the greater Chicago region, EPA is back on the job in a big way!

In a long-awaited move,...

The story of the slow-motion effort to prevent invasive giant Asian carp from infiltrating and destroying the Great Lakes ecosystem is, frankly, embarrassing and pitiful. We’ve known for years that these giant voracious fish were released into the...

I am really proud to work for the organization that largely wrote the Clean Air Act. It stands as a fantastically important, valuable, and genius bit of legislation more than 30 years later.

And this week, we saw how...

Coal clunkers.

That's how the Washington Post and clean air advocates described the two antiquated coal plants operating in the midst of Chicago. The Post's article focused on the Fisk and Crawford generating stations and a...

Have you ever driven on the Stevenson Expressway? If so, you have probably passed two of Chicago's more antiquated relics...

They are easy to ignore if you don’t know what you are looking at---we aren’t talking about monumental architecture...

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s iconic Plan of Chicago.  The Plan re-imagined the American industrial city, identifying and prioritizing open space, cultivation of natural areas, and public access to water resources as keystones for the...

I was struck by the beautiful and poetic ode to the Chicago River that Deborah Shore posted on Huffington Post this week. The history of the waterway is truly amazing and central to the growth of the...

"Hey, you got a nice business here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it..."

In films and TV, that's usually what the young toughs or Outfit guys say to the hardworking shopkeeper before...

While all eyes are on D.C. to bring the nation closer to a clean energy future, there was big news this week in Minneapolis.

That is where the better part of two years of negotiation...

In Wednesday's Chicago Tribune, Josh Boak reported on a plan to install 32,800 panels in a former industrial site on Chicago's South Side. It would amount to the largest solar power project in an American urban center.

The...

I saw a fascinating press release from Baard Energy today. They are a company attempting to build the first large-scale liquid coal refinery in the U.S. Oddly, the press release announces that the company is dropping its pursuit of $2 billion...

Last month, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm used her State of the State address to stake out an exciting new clean energy future for the wolverine state. By focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy, she was just...