John Lippert

John Lippert is a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune covering data centers, electricity grids, freight, air pollution and environmental justice. He spent 22 years as a senior writer and bureau chief at Bloomberg. He was the Detroit Free Press labor writer. Before that, he spent eight years on the assembly line at five General Motors factories in Michigan and Ohio.

Jeremiah Jamrosz, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 member and third-year student in the Apprenticeship and Skill Improvement Program, sits in a compactor at the William E. Dugan Training Center in Wilmington on Sept. 20, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Local 150 steps into Springfield power vacuum aiming to promote clean energy and protect jobs, efforts often at odds

October 24, 2024 at 4:45 p.m.

Renewable power represents just 10% of Local 150's work. The highway repairs, natural gas pipelines, and vast warehouse and intermodal complexes tell a different story.

Electric school buses on the production line at the Lion Electric Joliet plant on July 23, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Lion Electric lays off 300 people as revenues drop amid lag in bus subsidies

July 31, 2024 at 2:18 p.m.

Officials said they were indefinitely delaying truck production in Joliet, partly over uncertainty around the future of subsidies after the U.S. presidential election.

Electric school buses on the production line at the Lion Electric Joliet plant, July 23, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Lion Electric’s Joliet plant operating significantly below capacity as US and Canadian subsidies lag

July 30, 2024 at 7:08 a.m.

As Illinois Democrats welcome their party’s national convention next month, one of their crown jewels for environmental activism — an electric school bus factory — is fighting for its life.

Farmer Robert Bols on his property in Channahon on June 18, 2024, surrounded by CN property that will be developed into an intermodal facility. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Minooka pushes back on massive rail project it says will flood village with truck traffic

June 23, 2024 at 1:38 p.m.

The Village of Minooka seeks a court order to limit 18-wheelers. Meanwhile, Canadian National says it is working with community partners 'to ensure we meet our commitment to be a...

Vehicles move along DuSable Lake Shore Drive as smoke from Canadian wildfires passes through the region, June 27, 2023, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

After repeated blasts of smoke last summer and one of the driest winters on record, Chicago enters the 2024 wildfire season with trepidation

May 12, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Across the United States, wildfire smoke has been rising for decades as a percentage of the PM2.5 pollution that plagues industrial cities like Chicago.

A truck waits in a turn lane in heavy traffic near 41st Street and Pulaski Road in the Archer Heights neighborhood, March 28, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Neighborhoods near congested I-55 freight corridors count truck traffic, push for changes

April 1, 2024 at 7:43 a.m.

In the Joliet area, warehouses have mushroomed far beyond initial plans, and railroads are in the process of nearly doubling their intermodal capacity, mayor says.

A Metra train passes through a bottleneck on the Belt Junction, Jan. 5, 2024, on Chicago's South Side. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Belt Junction is a notorious bottleneck. Fixing it could increase rail capacity, but benefits to South Side residents could be mixed.

February 4, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

Project aims to boost economy and ease congestion as city grapples with protecting environmental justice neighborhoods near heavy truck and rail traffic.

The backside of houses on South Avenue J at 104th Street in Chicago's East Side neighborhood are seen at dusk on Nov. 29, 2023.

On unexpected findings in Chicago’s cumulative report on pollution, activists and officials caution this is just the first step

December 11, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.

Straight out of the starting blocks, Chicago is learning how hard it will be to write an ordinance to reduce a broad array of pollutants built up over many years...

Jessica Beverly and her 8-year-old son, Teddy, feed chickens at their 9-acre hobby farm on Nov. 6, 2023, in Woodstock. "The health department issued alerts and the cities canceled some of their outdoor activities," Beverly said. "But they just chalked it up to wildfires. There was no push for any policy changes to mitigate this in the future."

Midwest pollution spiked dramatically this summer because of Canadian wildfires. Now officials may erase those days from the books.

November 13, 2023 at 2:13 p.m.

Jessica Beverly made her two boys stay inside when Canadian wildfire smoke blanketed her Woodstock home in June. But she had work to do. "I was busy in the garden...

Great Lakes freighter C.T.C. No. 1 at the Illinois International Port District facility on Lake Calumet, Aug. 10, 2023, in Chicago. It has been parked between two grain elevators at the port since 1982.

The Port of Chicago is not just a scar on the city’s shoreline and a threat to the environment. It’s a drag on economic growth.

August 27, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

For 15 years, Chicago has tried and failed to win a federal grant to rebuild the principal dock at its main Lake Michigan port. During this time, the 113-year-old dock...

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