(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – We Energies says a lawsuit challenging the coal plants it is building in Oak Creek could be revived if regulators don’t authorize $5 million in funding for environmental initiatives as part of the utility’s rate increase proposal.

(MI) AnnArbor.com – A plastic shopping bag ban for the city’s largest retailers will be back before the Ann Arbor City Council tonight.

(ON) The Toronto Star – Sewage spills into Lake Ontario — such as the one that happened in 2006 — are unavoidable but that will change over time, a prominent city councillor insisted yesterday.

(IN) Indianapolis Star – Restaurants, coffeehouses and other eateries are finding more ways to bring eco-friendly practices into their business plans and daily routine.

(MI) The Macomb Daily – County officials were pleased and a bit mystified recently when a Health Department program that provides safe disposal of household hazardous wastes attracted 776 vehicles, which brought a combined 27 tons of liquid waste to the Warren Recycling Center.

(NY) The New York Times – Poking out of the ground near the smokestacks of the Mountaineer power plant here are two wells that look much like those that draw natural gas to the surface. But these are about to do something new: inject a power plant’s carbon dioxide into the earth.

(NY) The New York Times – The Obama administration called Thursday for a comprehensive national system for regulating the use of federal waters along the nation’s marine and Great Lakes shores, now administered by a hodgepodge of federal, state or other agencies with often-conflicting goals.

By Andrew Norman
namronwerdna@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 21, 2009
Supporters of a climate change bill targeted members of Congress from the eight Great Lakes states with campaign cash to get the measure through the House last June.
On average they gave $215,920 to each representative in the 125-member Great Lakes delegation since 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit and non-partisan research group that tracks money in U.S. politics.
That’s substantially higher than the $188,938 average for all of Congress. Great Lakes delegates who voted against the bill received $41,000 more on …

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By Haley Walker
Walkerh4@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 18, 2009
More than three-quarters of the women in a recent survey said they pay the electric bills in their households.
Women…
…who pay household electricity bills – 77 percent
…willing to pay $30 more a month for clean energy – 53 percent
…who have conserved electricity – 97 percent
Source: Women’s Survey on Energy and the Environment

Almost all of them said they felt obligated to reduce electricity use. And more than half were willing to spend $30 more on electricity bills for clean energy, according to the June survey by …