Jeffrey is a St. Louis-based reporter covering the Midwest power sector for Energywire. Focus areas include the shift by coal-dependent states to cleaner energy sources and the evolution of the utility business model in response to new technologies. Before joining E&E News, Jeffrey was the energy and environment reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he won a SABEW award for a story on the Iowa ethanol boom. He also covered energy for Bloomberg News. A native of Houston, he is a Tulane University graduate with a double major in English and economics.
One of the Midwest's largest utilities is upping the ante on clean energy by closing its remaining coal-burning plants a decade earlier than scheduled as part of a broader push to clean up its fuel mix.
The Midwestern Governors Association has tapped Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve as its new chair, and she's already said her priority will be strengthening the region's grid.
ST. LOUIS — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday announced his charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Washington University in St. Louis will organize a meeting of Midwestern universities focused on mitigating the effects of climate change and transitioning to 100% clean energy.
A proposal by an Illinois legislator to raise electric vehicle registration fees to $1,000 — a level five times higher than any other state's — is getting a strong pushback from advocates who say it threatens to kill the market for plug-in cars in the state.
Once written off as too undependable and expensive for a region where coal was still king, solar energy is being embraced by Midwest utilities at a pace once unthinkable.