South Side Chicago native leads city’s environmental justice effort

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Chicago’s chief sustainability officer, who grew up on the city’s southeast side, is leading the city’s effort to reform local policies that disproportionately exposed people of color to industrial pollution. (Inside Climate News)

WASTE TO ENERGY: County officials in Minneapolis ask staff to develop a detailed plan for closing a controversial trash incinerator between 2028 and 2040 as advocates keep up pressure to close the facility. (Sahan Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Wisconsin-based trucking and logistics company operates one of the largest electric vehicle fleets in the country as it seeks to cut carbon emissions per mile. (Press Gazette)

PIPELINES:

• Iowa county officials submit a letter touting the local economic benefits of the Dakota Access pipeline as federal regulators consider the project’s environmental impacts. (Daily Gate City)
• South Dakota regulators formally end two commitments involving construction on the Dakota Access pipeline, which was completed in 2017 but faces an uncertain future amid legal challenges. (South Dakota Searchlight)
• Critics of Wolf Carbon Solutions’ proposed carbon pipeline spanning Iowa to Illinois plan to submit a petition to local officials with more than 1,000 signatures opposing the project, though the developer says it hopes to avoid eminent domain. (WEEK; Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• An official with Navigator CO2, which formally withdrew plans for a multi-state carbon pipeline, believes the infrastructure will be built ​“at some point down the road.” (Des Moines Register; KELO)

UTILITIES: Michigan regulators order Consumers Energy to show why the utility should not be found in violation of state laws after persistent customer complaints about malfunctioning electric meters and billing practices. (Michigan Radio)

SOLAR: More than a dozen states have ended their net metering policies over the past decade, which experts believe could slow solar installations as the Biden administration seeks to maximize opportunities for deployment. (E&E News)

GRID: A group of utilities plan to host public open houses for a proposed 28-mile transmission project in western Minnesota. (West Central Tribune)

COMMENTARY: Clean energy advocates say their joint legal filing with a labor union in support of commercial solar development in Ohio ​“highlights the urgency of finding common ground” on renewable energy. (Natural Resources Defense Council)