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.

Anthony Moser and his daughters, Lucy, 10, foreground, and Sofia, 8, walk past the Corwith Intermodal Facility on their way to school along Pershing Road and St. Louis Avenue on Feb. 14, 2025. Moser is an activist who has been involved with getting air quality information to the public. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Activists anxiously await air monitors, hope Chicago isn’t backsliding on pollution promises

February 16, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The city expects the network to go online next year but won’t have enough money to keep paying the community to help operate the monitors, publish results.

BP Whiting Refinery in Indiana on Jan. 28, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

O’Hare is Chicago’s biggest CO2 emitter; Indiana factories are region’s top polluters

February 9, 2025 at 6:19 p.m.

New database aims to help cities map out their own CO2 cuts as President Trump looks to eliminate federal programs.

A CTA Blue Line train rolls along the rails as the sun rises over Chicago and the Eisenhower Expressway near Austin Boulevard during early morning rush hour on Oct. 3, 2023. (Antonio Perez/ Chicago Tribune)

Illinois environment and labor officials seek closer ties on climate action

December 10, 2024 at 2:27 p.m.

Trip to Germany is part of effort to find common ground on mass transit, highways, electricity and emissions.

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.

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