Energy sector holds its breath as nuclear power inches forward

January 22, 2025 Nicole Pollack, Great Lakes Now

By Nicole Pollack, Great Lakes Now

January 22, 2025

Catch the latest energy news from around the Great Lakes region. Check back for these biweekly Energy News Roundups.

Uncertainty abounds in the energy sector as President Donald Trump returns to office. In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump promised to “revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry.” Trump has already begun the process of reversing Biden-era policies meant to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles and reduce emissions from gas cars. Such changes to federal rules and incentives could upend the plans of Michigan-based automakers that have struggled at times to compete in the national and global EV markets.

Coal plant retirement dates are creeping backward amid rising demand for electricity and the prospect of the Trump administration loosening environmental regulations that would make some aging coal plants too expensive to keep open. Utilities in recent months have delayed closures in Indiana and Illinois. The owners of a coal plant in Ohio that was expected to shutter or be converted to natural gas have said they intend to keep the plant operating for as long as it is legal and economical to do so.

Eight coal sites in Indiana could be candidates for small modular nuclear reactors, a study from Purdue University found. Indiana is among the country’s most coal-reliant states, and its energy needs are expected to climb in the coming years. The state-funded analysis identified six existing coal sites and two retired ones that have the right conditions for nuclear development. There are currently no nuclear plants in Indiana that send electricity onto the grid.

Nuclear power remains a hot topic across the Great Lakes region. Federal regulators recently expressed concern about the “aggressive schedule” for the reopening of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. Members of Minnesota’s divided state legislature are floating a bipartisan deal to lift the state’s ban on new nuclear plants.

And a Michigan court of appeals heard arguments last week against pipeline company Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel project, which would move a portion of the pipeline into a concrete tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac. The Michigan Public Service Commission issued a permit for the project in 2023. Tribes and environmental groups told a three-judge panel that the commission’s review was not thorough enough.

In Wisconsin, meanwhile, activists opposing Enbridge’s plan to reroute part of Line 5 around tribal land occupied the lobby of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, demanding that the agency reverse its approval of the project.

More energy news, in case you missed it:

Air quality has improved in parts of Detroit that failed for years to meet federal sulfur dioxide standards following the closure of multiple coal plants.
Michigan has attracted more clean energy projects than any other state, with Texas and Georgia coming in second and third, according to a new analysis.
Two former FirstEnergy executives have been indicted on federal charges linked to the Ohio utility’s energy bribery scheme.
Cleanup of an oil spill near Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to cost more than $1 million, Enbridge told federal regulators.
A well pad explosion occurred near an Ohio state park that’s at the center of a debate over the state’s decision to allow drilling under park lands and wildlife areas.