Midwest Energy News expanding its reporting ranks

I’m excited to announce that Kari Lydersen, a Chicago-based freelance journalist, will be joining Midwest Energy News as our second Reporting Fellow starting in July.

Regular readers are already familiar with Lydersen’s work. She wrote our first enterprise feature back in January 2011, and has been a regular contributor ever since, offering incisive and diligent coverage on issues including Wisconsin’s wind siting standards, the Chicago clean power ordinance, and the struggles of coal gasification projects in Illinois and Indiana.

In addition to her work for Midwest Energy News, Lydersen has written for the Chicago News Cooperative, OnEarth Magazine, the Chicago Reader and the Washington Post. She’s the author of three books and has taught journalism at Columbia College in Chicago.

In her new role, Lydersen will focus her efforts eastward to Michigan and Ohio, while maintaining an eye on developments in her home state. This position was made possible thanks to generous ongoing support from the Joyce Foundation.

Dan Haugen, our first Reporting Fellow, based in Minneapolis, will continue focusing on the western half of the region.

In the coming weeks, we’ll unveil a new design for Midwest Energy News that will capitalize on our original journalism efforts.

As always, thanks for reading.