Released by the Whitmer administration on April 21, the MI Healthy Climate Plan puts forth strategies for Michigan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 while providing benchmarks along the way. The plan sets the following objectives:
MEEA is continuing its blog series to highlight Midwest communities using energy efficiency to progress their climate goals. The next city in the series is Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On April 19, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced the release of the State of Wisconsin Clean Energy Plan (CEP). The first of its kind in the state, the CEP was prepared by the Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy as directed by Executive Order #38.
MEEA is producing a blog series to highlight Midwest communities using energy efficiency to progress their climate goals. The first city in the series is Cleveland, Ohio.
On September 15 the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) was signed into law. The bill contains many energy efficiency components that will impact and improve the lives of citizens and workers in Illinois, including a provision to create a state stretch energy code.
After nearly three years of policy development and a year of debate and negotiation, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (SB 2408) and Governor Pritzker signed it into law on September 15. This nearly 1,000-page bill sets Illinois on a pathway toward power sector decarbonization by 2045, creates equitable clean energy workforce development pathways and expands state commitments to energy efficiency, renewable energy and electric vehicles.
People around the United States watched in dismay as Texans suffered through a terrible series of events in mid-February —below average temperatures, rolling blackouts that lasted nearly five days for some, burst pipes, energy bill spikes and an overall sense of trauma and shock.
Public policy leaders around the country are striving to find cost-effective and feasible ways to rapidly mitigate and adapt to climate change. Recently, MEEA conducted a review of climate action plans throughout the Midwest to better understand how leaders are approaching climate action, and the degree to which energy efficiency is incorporated. After an analysis of 15 midwestern cities ranging in size from Bloomfield, Iowa with 2,694 people to Chicago with almost 3 million, we identified cities that are employing particularly unique, innovative and thoughtful initiatives into their climate action plans.
Here at MEEA, we think our Building Operator Certification instructors are everyday rock stars. They are at the frontlines, teaching building operators how to cut costs and energy usage in their facilities. Our amazing pool of facility and energy managers are why BOC has the reach and impact it does in the Midwest.
We sat down with one BOC instructor who has gone above and beyond this year. Doug Lafever has been an instructor since 2014 and continually impresses us. This year alone, he has instructed eight classes in four states: Indiana, Kansas, Michigan and Nebraska.
According to the Weather Channel, the Plains and Midwest states have had the most extreme and record-breaking weather of any region in 2019. From the polar vortex gripping the Midwest and setting at least 340 cold weather records in late January, to the deluge of snow in February, capped off by devastating flooding in March and two snowstorms in April, Midwesterners and the Midwest have had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them!