Mitten State

Want Michigan businesses to be competitive? Don't play 'Lucy yanks the football on Charlie Brown' with energy efficiency program

2011-08-13T23:53:00.000-04:00

Dear Gov. Snyder and Michigan legislators:

You’ve been consistent in saying that making Michigan’s business climate more competitive is your top goal.

Michigan’s energy efficiency program provides businesses with an affordable way to cut overhead expenses. It meets energy needs at a cost that is 90 percent lower than one of the most talked about alternatives, a coal power plant. It is also significantly less costly than wind farms or other clean energy sources.

So, the notice below is not the sort of thing you want to read if you are a business hoping to quality for efficiency programs.

The Consumers Energy Business Solutions electric incentive program is fully subscribed and has been closed. Electric incentive applications received on or after August 1, 2011 will be placed on a waitlist and filled on a first-in basis subject to the availability of funds.

Nor is this:

DTE Energy Star rebates 91% paid as of August 1. (in other words, about to run out of money…parenthesis and links, mine)

In April, your Michigan Public Service Commission boasted that efficiency programs were ”bigger and better.” But if they're unavailable the remainder of 2011, that seems a hollow boast.

Please adjust this program – that was created in 2008 with a bipartisan vote of the Michigan House and Senate – so that the utilities don’t get to slam the door partway through the year on businesses and homeowners trying to save energy and money.

Thank you,

Mitten State

Hat tip to Frank Zaski for digging up the highlighted statements from the utilities’ web sites.

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What Nolan Finley really means

2011-08-02T08:35:00.001-04:00

No links in this post. Just some plain English translations of Nolan Finley's
recent column spreading unfounded terror among the citizenry.......

EPA raises risk of blackouts As an opinion columnist, I do not need a source or any data or attribution for this statement, unlike the poor schlubs in the newsroom who are required to substantiate statements they make in their stories. Can you imagine?!

NOLAN FINLEY

An especially stormy summer gives us a taste of what life would be like if the electric umbilical cord attached to the side of our homes were to run dry.

Prepare to panic

Silent air conditioners and refrigerators full of spoiling food is the shared experience in countless neighborhoods hit by weather related power outages.

Saved by the backup

A generous generating reserve in the state kept the power interruptions fewer than they might have been. Despite an unrelenting heat wave, no blackouts occurred because of shortages in electricity supplies, says Steve Kurmas, president and chief operating officer of Detroit Edison, a DTE Energy subsidiary. The utilities did their jobs. I’m about to use their talking points to string together this column.

DTE has a production capacity that exceeds normal demand by 26 percent, and is more than twice the standard 12 percent reserve, Kurmas says. That's largely because the recession wiped out so many customers in this region. So when demand peaks, DTE can ramp up production to cover the load, even on hottest days. Customers are paying to maintain capacity they don’t need, but on a handful of days a year, the utility is able to fire up the oldest, least efficient, most expensive and dirtiest coal plants to meet demand. It may well be less expensive to buy that energy from the electric grid, but exploring that would collapse the premise of the column.

EPA energy killers You thought I was going to use "job killers" again, didn't you!

That's the situation today. Four years from now, who knows?

Between now and then, DTE will have to shutter 10 coal-burning units, reducing capacity by 20 percent to meet new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal plants. Updating the plants to comply with the new EPA standards in the three-year period allowed would be massively expensive. So DTE will take them off line. Anybody with brainwave activity would question my contention that the utility will shut down 10 coal plants in 36 months, but I'm counting on no one applying critical thinking here.

That will reduce reserves to 6 percent and leave the system vulnerable to blackouts on scorching hot days like the ones we've had this month. Now you may panic. I remain calm because I know full well the huge lobbying power of the coal industry will easily tie the whole thing up in court for a decade.

Kurmas says DTE has no intention of allowing reserve capacity to drop so low. The utility also is not panicking because they know this too. The company is taking time to assess the regulations, and to get some clarifications from the EPA. Michiganders are going to be funding a new team of utility company lobbyists and lawyers to castrate this idea. If there's a change in the White House next year, it will likely mean a new regulatory ballgame. We all know a new administration will mean more delays, if not a complete about face. Utility lobbyists can outlast any president.

But the plan now is to replace the coal burners with plants that operate on natural gas. That's cleaner power, but costlier. I am pointedly ignoring mountains of credible evidence that energy efficiency programs have vast potential to meet energy needs at a fraction of the cost of gas, nuclear, coal, windmills, solar, etc. Instead, I will pretend natural gas plants are our only option. I'm also not going to mention the conclusions of our state's Public Service Commission, which foresees no need for a new coal plant for more than a decade.

Watch your wallets

Kurmas says to expect electricity bills to soar by 25 to 35 percent. Panic, I tell you! I need not provide any source for this claim, because you can trust the man from the utility company. For residential customers, that'll leave less money to spend on other goods and services, further closing the damper on the economy.

For power-intensive businesses, such as manufacturers, it will mean higher operating costs that will have to be offset either by raising prices or trimming workers. Manufacturers can lower their costs with energy efficiency upgrades, but you'll have to read that elsewhere. We're against that because dope-smoking hippie environmentalists are for it.

The consequences of the coal mandate will be huge. And yet such a momentous change was pushed through by regulatory fiat, without a vote by our elected representatives.

President Barack Obama has proven wholly inept at putting Americans back to work. But as an economy killer, he is without equal. I stray from the topic here to take a generalized, gratuitous shot at the President, who by most accounts is moderately liberal but by the Detroit News’s standards is a raving, communist devil.

The EPA's move to turn the occasional summertime power outage into a daily threat is just the latest example.

nfinley@detnews.com

(313) 222-2064

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Read more of his recent columns and read his blog at detnews.com/finley. Also watch him at 7:30 p.m. Fridays on “Am I Right?” on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.

Catching up: Michigan River News; North America's awesome-ist marathon river race and some guy who treaded water 17 hours in Huron

2011-07-28T18:15:00.001-04:00

Geez. Looks like we've got some catching up to do!

In June, the Michigan Environmental Council released a report showing that the state’s oldest coal-fired power plants cost $1.5 billion annually in health care costs and damages – the equivalent of $500 annually for a family. We pay for that in our health care premiums and copays. It is not reflected in our electricity rates, nor is it ever cited by clean energy opponents when they compare the costs of various energy sources. But it should be. Dirty air costs us, new reports increasingly show.

The Mackinac Center is still clinging to the status quo though, prompting this response from some really smart and handsome dude.

If you’re a fan of Michigan’s rivers (and who’s not?) check out the news Michigan River News web site co-founded by my MEC colleague Andrew McGlashen. The coolest river news lately is a Circuit Court ruling that a dam must be fully removed from the Pigeon River, after numerous fish kills. Thanks to our friends at Trout Unlimited’s Michigan chapter for fighting for the ecosystem.

The RiverNews guys will be at the awesome AuSable River Canoe Marathon this weekend. It’s the longest nonstop canoe race in North America, and been part of our pure Michigan summers for 64 years.

Finally, this guy is my hero for the day, 17 hours without a life jacket in Lake Huron, “I have people that depend on me,” he said.

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The Alamo? Not so much, but bike sharing service in San Antonio was the real thing (and maybe coming to a Michigan city near you?)

2011-07-05T09:25:00.000-04:00

This woman does not come with the bike

Our trip to San Antonio would have been much, much different if not for their outstanding new Bcycle service, which allows people to check out bicycles and drop them off at numerous points throughout the city.

We rented cycles three days, pedaling ourselves to the point of heatstroke checking out places like the botanical gardens, the many tremendous Tex-Mex restaurants and the meandering Mission Bike Trail that follows the San Antonio River.

And of course we joined thousands of sweating, sloppy tourists ogling The Alamo, where an IMAX movie and lots of other "educational" materials explained the mission's historic and inspirational role in Americans ~~stealing Texas from the Mexicans~~ standing up for freedom against the tyranny of Santa Anna.

But the cycles were the most pleasant surprise of the trip, allowing us to tour the city in a way we never otherwise would have been able to.

You just insert your credit card and select a bike from the rack. When you’re done, you find another rack (an easy Smart Phone app will locate them for you, but there were plenty of signs in the city too) and slide the bike in an empty slot, where it locks tight until the next user arrives

$10 per bike per day, plus fairly nominal charges for the time you use (the first half hour of every use is free).

My friend and colleague and Lansing City Council candidate Rory Neuner is among a group trying to bring Bcycle to Lansing. I’ve heard several other Michigan cities are considering such programs, but I don’t know which for sure.

It’ll take some work in Michigan’s cities, which still are designed primarily for cars and NOT for pedestrians or cyclists. But that is changing and Bcycle might help that momentum. Bike lanes, curb cuts, great signage and the Riverwalk all helped make San Antonio’s work.

Honestly, I don’t know if we contributed any more cash to San Antonio’s economy than we would have if the Bcycle rentals weren’t available. But the whole Bcycle experience makes it far more likely that we will return one day. And we can recommend a trip to that town far more enthusiastically than we otherwise would have.

Linked to Michigan’s already outsanding trail networks, bicycle sharing programs in certain areas could be a great, low-impact way to market a region's best cultural, recreational and retail opportunities to visitors.

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I get a campsite, you get Pure Michigan NASCAR and everybody's happy

2011-06-23T06:03:00.008-04:00

Seemed reasonable at the time!

There are eight rustic camp sites, first come, first served.

There were three left when we got there, and we got site #2. It wasn’t one of the lakefront spots, but it was nestled back in the woods far enough so that … at night with a fire crackling, unobstructed stars overhead and a couple of Bellaire Browns it seemed like we were the only ones in the county.

Where? Oh hell no. I’m not about to tell you. But with a little detective work on the DNR’s web site you shouldn’t have a problem figuring it out.

Our campground was a couple hours from Lansing, and a couple hours from magnificent Torch Lake where we spent the day Saturday with family. That night, again, we were the only ones in the world. In the morning, we drank camp coffee and a breakfast of soy sausages and homemade pesto (it seemed sensible at the time).

After a three mile walk in the woods interspersed with magnificent meadows of sun-dappled chest high grasses, we were home in time to watch the Tigers and entertain more family. Maybe I took a nap too.

It was a little slice of Michigan living. But it may not so for long. Fifteen dollars a night, times eight campsites, generates $120 … not nearly enough to cover the expenses of trash removal, outhouse and fire pit maintenance, road grading, administrative matters, tree trimming and securing the picnic table to the ground with a braided metal cable the thickness of a child’s wrist.

That leaves taxpayers on the hook. Many never use a rustic state campground, and never intend to. Many of our friends and neighbors don’t believe their tax dollars should be used to supplement the campgrounds' user fees. In fact, many were on the verge of closing this year for lack of funding, until DNR Director Rodney Stokes found a way to limp along in 2011.

So why should taxpayers who never use the rustic campgrounds be willing to fund them?

Because it is that sort of opportunity -- and thousands like it and very much unlike it – that makes people want to live, work and play in this state. It’s not very quantifiable, like tax rates and safe streets and availability to public transportation are. But it’s real, and it shows up consistently on surveys nationwide about what attracts people to live where they do.

So as legislators – many of them indoctrinated in the drown government in a bathtub cult prepare to slash away at many of the opportunities that makes our state so unique, we need a robust discussion. Not just about closing a few dozen rustic campgrounds. But about what sort of opportunities we can capitalize on here to create the Michigan we all want.

In that mix, I vote for some tax money to maintain the rustic campgrounds. In fairness, I’ll agree to use state money on something I have no interest in, like NASCAR races.

Iit’ll cost a lot less than $972k to maintain a fire pit. And while you’re at the race, I’ll be putting another log on.

*****

If you feel like contacting your legislator you might tell them you’re glad the state’s rustic state forest campgrounds remained open this year, and that you expect him/her to work to maintain adequate funding for the state’s DNR to operate them.

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Environmental funders reassess climate change tactics: First base starting to look pretty good now

2011-06-03T14:03:00.000-04:00

Oops, wrong first base photo!

Shortly after joining the Michigan Environmental Council in 2006, I became aware of an obscure public notice in the Federal Register soliciting comments on a plan for the U.S. Coast Guard to begin live ammunition training exercises with .50 caliber machine guns in 34 areas of the Great Lakes.

I tipped some journalists to the story, lighting the fuse for a maelstrom of protest that forced the Coast Guard to re-evaluate its plans. For a couple months, I invested a fair amount of time into helping spread public awareness of a plan that heretofore had been very, VERY quietly pursued.

At one point, a longtime veteran of the environmental movement asked, “so, who’s funding you for this?” When I replied no one was, she appeared befuddled, and perhaps a little put off. It had not occurred to me that my work priorities should be dictated by funders. The most important work should get the most attention, right? Not necessarily.

As this interesting article from Politico points out, the donors who fund environmental work call the shots … to a certain extent. And they are not happy about the results they’ve gotten from the money they’ve poured into addressing climate change during the past several years.

Federal Cap and Trade legislation that would have begun to address the issue crashed and burned. Amid the wreckage, environmental groups are regrouping to try and accomplish change on a piece by piece basis – fighting for better building efficiency standards, and stopping new coal plants, and investing in public transportation.

If this seems like a half-assed way to deal with the planet’s most important issue, it is. But it’s what we have. As the aforementioned Politico article notes, the environmental community has neither sufficent power to punish do-nothing politicians, nor the clout to reward the good ones.

Without that power – or a groundswell of public demand for action – there is little hope of the sweeping change that many of us would like to see.

Does that mean we don’t need visionaries laying out idealistic plans? No. But it means most of us need to hunker down and work for incremental change if we’re going to have something to show for it at the end of the day.

As President Obama’s Advisor Rahm Emanuel told an environmental funder, “Your DNA and my DNA are so different. I’m about trying to get to first base. You’re about trying to hit it over the fence.”

First base might sound like a crappy place to be when you’re so far behind.

But it beats striking out. And it might get funded.

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An antidote to what ails you; a remedy for disillusionment: Michigan's Dark Sky Park

2011-05-17T08:11:00.000-04:00

Unnecessary light pollution plagues our cities, suburbs and countrysides.

Gas stations are illuminated like white hot suns. Whole floors of office buildings stay lit for a solitary night owl worker. And blazing security lights click on constantly throughout my neighborhood (note to neighbors: walking my dog on the sidewalk is NOT A THREAT; recalibrate your lights, goats).

But in Michigan we are still blessed with dark places where the Milky Way and a million twinkling stars inspire awe and wonder. Places where science and religion combined seem pitiable tools of inquiry. Places where – necks craned and mouths agape – words are insignificant to define what we see.

One of those places has now been recognized internationally. Michigan has an International Dark Sky Park. It’s one of only six Dark Sky Parks in the nation – one of nine in the world.

Located along the Straits of Mackinac on 550 acres of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline called The Headlands, the stargazers' paradise is the result of years of hard work by Emmet County citizens and officials. They were dedicated to preserving this little slice of Pure Michigan that speaks volumes about the quality of life Up North.

The designation required light meter readings from the International Dark Sky Association, the adoption of a special lighting ordinance and 75 pages of paperwork according to my friend Ron Dzwonkowski’s Detroit Free Press column.

In a great tidbit of storytelling, Ron says one “key to securing the designation was the endorsement of Patrick Stonehouse, a teacher and astronomer in neighboring Cheboygan County who from his rooftop observatory in Wolverine discovered a comet in 1998 that the International Astronomical Union has labeled 1998 H1, or Comet Stonehouse.”

Michigan’s International Dark Sky Park. What a great, great story!

Michigan Senate cave dwellers vote to cripple Great Lakes protection, strip governor's powers

2011-05-10T07:57:00.003-04:00

SB 272 sponsors

Back in the 1970s Lake Erie was dying and Michigan’s waterways were choked with weeks and algae. Phosphorus from laundry detergents was identified as a major culprit in the problems. But the state legislature and federal regulators – under intense industry pressure – were paralyzed with inaction.

Michigan Gov. William Milliken put on his big boy pants and took a stand in 1976, using his power to ban phosphorus. It was the beginning of a steep decline in Great Lakes phosphorus and the recovery of Lake Erie. Other states followed suit. It wasn’t until 2008 that Michigan’s legislature affirmed the Milliken-era ban.

Now Michigan Senate Republicans – under the treacherous guise of reducing regulatory burdens – want to strip Michigan’s governor of his power to protect the lakes and other natural resources. Senate Bill 272 was passed last week. It forbids the governor's environmental regulators to exceed any federal environmental standard.

That means Republicans believe that water protection laws in places like Arizona and New Mexico are a good fit for Michigan, where we are stewards of the greatest freshwater resource on planet Earth. It means Republicans, erstwhile protectors of state’s rights, believe Washington bureaucrats know what’s best for Michigan. And it means they want to strip Michigan governors of a key power they’ve held for decades.

The bill is part of an onerous package of legislation that seeks to intimidate state regulators into tepid enforcement of environmental laws.

Here’s hoping that – if these cavemen and women get their way in the State House of Representatives – Gov. Rick Snyder will veto the bills. If he cares about the lakes, he will. And if he’s offended that the legislature is seeking to strip him of the power to enforce the law, he will too.

You can help. Find your state representative and tell them a vote for SB 272 and the rest of this package ensures your vote will go to someone else in 2012.

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Spring! The season of rebirth. And carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors wafting across our suburban lawns

2011-04-28T16:12:00.000-04:00

I posted a version of this a year ago. And probably will each spring when the annual rain of poisons descends on my neighborhood:

The lawn care trucks are back at it, hosing down suburban lawns with toxic chemicals that they’ve convinced us are necessary for healthy grass.

It’s a dangerous and sophisticated marketing con job that we’ve all bought into. Wholesale application of lawn chemicals is not only unnecessary and a waste of money, it is dangerous for children and pets.

The group Beyond Pesticides says that of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides 19 have studies pointing toward carcinogens, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 27 are sensitizers and/or irritants, and 11 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system.

Children’s developing brains, nervous systems and reproductive organs are the most sensitive to long-term damage from environmental toxins. If you were intentionally applying the same chemicals to your child’s bedding, a call to the child welfare agency would be in order.

Lawn chemicals poison your pets, too. This study by Purdue University researchers showed herbicide-treated lawns increased the risk of bladder cancer in Scottish Terriers by four to seven times. That adds to other research showing the danger to dogs.

Pets and people aren’t all. Birds, frogs, insects and other critters are at significant risk from the overapplication of this crap.

But companies continue peddling their toxics to a largely indifferent public. And the industry’s clout in Michigan’s Capitol have ensured that meaningful reforms have been muzzled.

There are plenty of alternatives to artificially and chemically dependent turf grasses for your landscaping. And even if you insist on the turf grass, you can find companies who will keep it healthy without spraying dangerous chemicals on it.

You can establish a clover lawn, which creates its own fertilizer as a nitrogen fixer.

You could replace grass with hardier native plants. Such plants don’t need chemicals to thrive because nature has already designed them to thrive in Michigan’s climate and soil.

Or you could simply hire a lawn care company that will agree to manage your lawn with nontoxic products.

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Consumers Energy asks to cut customers' renewable energy cost by 72 percent !

2011-04-26T11:08:00.000-04:00

Mitten State reported weeks ago that Consumers Energy customers’ utility bills would be lowered because renewable electricity was turning out to be substantially less expensive than originally predicted.

Today we learn just how much. The utility is asking to reduce the renewable energy charge on residential bills from $2.50 to 70 cents per month – a 72 percent cost cut.

Whether the money goes back to ratepayers or is funneled into solar energy development is a discussion worth having. But the bottom line is that meeting Michigan’s target of generating 10 percent of its electricity from clean, renewable energy by 2015 will be neither as difficult nor expensive as opponents would have you believe.

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If eggs and meat are made in the supermarket, where does your tap water come from?

2011-04-25T07:09:00.004-04:00

My drinking water source. Eat your heart out.

We’ve probably all heard stories about city kids who think eggs are made in the supermarket, or can’t identify where their meat comes from. Eventually they learn – at least in a book-learnin’ kind of way – that eggs come from chickens and meat from dead animals.

But apparently most don’t ever learn where their water comes from. A Nature Conservancy survey released last month shows 77 percent of Americans who use municipal water can not identify the source of their tap water.

By itself, that lack of knowledge probably isn’t a big deal. We pay taxes and pass laws to have other people make sure that safe water comes out when we open the spigots.

But in a more global sense, our lack of connection with the natural world is symptomatic of larger problems. As the Nature Conservancy asks: “If we are less aware of our dependence on nature for our most essential needs, are we less inclined to get personally involved in protecting it?”

For the record, my tap water comes from the Detroit River, a majestic natural wonder which carries most of the greatest freshwater system on planet earth on its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. Your water should be half as awesome!

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Detroit News duo vie to pen most outlandish, spiteful tirade against all things environmental

2011-04-22T07:26:00.003-04:00

Editorial columnists gone wild!

Pointing out errors, inconsistencies and tortured logic in Detroit News editorial writers’ ugly screeds against environmentalists and all they stand for could be a full-time job. Since Mitten State is only part-time – and because the News tells us that environmentalists hate jobs – we valiantly resist the urge to spend too much time playing Whack-a-Mole with them. Alas, pair of jaw-droppingly stupid columns this week are too irresistible to let pass by.

First, News editorial board member and cartoonist Henry Payne invoked the visage of Nazis in his column titled Sieg Heil, warmingmongers!. He warns darkly of coming “civil unrest” and “grim war” in the United States because of President Obama’s “radical green vision.”

Yes. Civil unrest and grim war. From the radical green vision of a president who’s backing so-called ”clean” coal; expanding oil drilling in previously off-limits areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska coastlines; and authorizing massive taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear plants.

(Aside: The News’ editorialists rail constantly against taxpayer subsidies for clean energy like wind and solar. On the topic of taxpayer subsidies for coal, gas, oil and nuclear power they are as quiet as church mice.)

Feeling challenged to up the ante in their game of batshit-crazy, Payne’s colleague Manny Lopez ginned up an incomprehensibly inane blog post incorporating climate change with lunatic murderer Charlie Manson, Koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones and Al Gore.

On a junior high schooler’s Facebook page the post would be judged a failed attempt at clever. From the Opinion Page Editor of the state’s second-largest newspaper, it’s just embarrassing.
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New study finds that....um...the uh....what was....oh yeah dude...so what were we talking about?

2011-04-15T07:35:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you learn stuff that just makes you go:

“Dude…..I’m like, so….um…you know when the uh….oh, man, .I forgot what I was going to say…..hey, are those Cheetos all gone?”

So it is with the news that our nation’s stoners are responsible for massive amounts of climate-altering greenhouse gasses. Yes, a new study concludes that marijuana cultivation consumes 1 percent of our nation’s electricity. That’s enough to enough to power 2 million homes. Each joint smoked represents about two pounds of climate-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.

The study may have even underestimated stoners’ impact on the environment. It did not, for example, factor in late night pizza delivery, gasoline burned while idling at green lights, or the number of baked people still awake at 3 a.m. watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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Beekeeping's subversive secret: These little traitors are anti-free market Communist heathens

2011-04-13T08:08:00.003-04:00

The hive. Karen did the artwork.

I’m in bee school. The wise old hands from the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association are teaching me and several dozen other wannabes the ancient art and science of this fascinating trade/hobby. My bees arrive in 10 days.

Bees are good for the environment. They pollinate lots of plants and flowers. Michigan’s cherry crop is 90 percent dependent on honey bees for pollination. California almonds growers – who produce 80 percent of the world’s almonds – are 100 percent dependent on honeybees.

Commercial beekeepers truck their hives around the country and get paid by farmers to let them pollinate their crops. No bees, no almonds, and not many cherries. Life without almonds or cherries would be unimaginably drab.

Honey also has antibacterial and other healing properties that may include protection against pollen allergies.

The health of the nation’s honey bees is not good, probably as a result of the stress we put on them using nasty pesticides and other chemicals. Trucking them cross country all year doesn’t help. So in a small way maybe my bees will be good for nature.

Here’s my worry though. In bee school I learned that bee colonies are, themselves, individual organisms. Individual bees are part of the collective, kind of like The Borg on Star Trek. They share all the work and all the rewards equally. Bigger, stronger and more industrious bees don’t get

Dead heroes with only their little bee butts showing

astronomical rewards. If they collect more pollen, they don’t eat more honey or get to take fancy vacations or hire lesser bees to pick mites off their fur and polish their wings.

On Sunday I saw a colony that died over our cold winter from starvation. Many bees had burrowed deep into the honey comb to get the very last drops of stored honey. Instead of eating it they passed it back to those behind them. They died as unselfish heroes, with only their little bee buts showing from the comb cells.

Do you see where this is going? Yes, bees are at least Socialists. Probably Communists. And as soon as the Tea Partiers come down from the euphoria of the new Ayn Rand movie they’re bound to introduce legislation banning these buzzing threats to the American Way.

I’m really going to miss almonds.

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D'OH!! Climate skeptic scientists' data inconvenient for billionaire oil magnates who helped fund it

2011-04-05T08:30:00.007-04:00

So two oil magnate billionaire brothers walk into a ~~bar~~ scientific discussion. They spend a bunch of money to help fund a fresh analysis of climate change data conducted by a scientist who’s outspokenly critical of the consensus on global warming.

The brothers are enthused, since they have a lot to gain if the nation believes that burning up fossil fuel as quickly as we can pry it out of the earth is a good thing.

The skeptic community is enthused, since they believe this man is one of the only scientists not on the planet that is part of an evil conspiracy to perpetrate a massive hoax on the world’s people in order to, um .... get more grants or something.The scientist is the toast of anti-government hacks like Michigan's own Oakland University teacher who goes by the name The Blog Prof.

The ending of this story has not been written. But there was a pretty damn good foreshadowing of it the other day when the scientist testified before Congress. The results so far, the scientist said to the chagrin of the billionaire brothers, are nearly identical to the results obtained by all the other leading scientific organizations on the planet and reported by the International Panel on Climate Change.

This has infuriated the skeptics who once vowed to accept the conclusions of this lone, honest scientist. Even if the conclusions challenged their theory. Now they say this man, clearly, is part of the evil conspiracy.

As Linda Ellerbee used to say, “…and so it goes.”

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Newspaper correction of the month!

2011-03-31T08:10:00.001-04:00

The New York Times carried a story on President Obama’s speech this week in which he called for the nation to reduce its oil imports by one-third over the next decade.

As Jon Stewart has pointed out Obama is the eighth consecutive president to call for such action. The first seven crashed and burned.

The Times apparently realized this a bit too late. They added this wry, pointed and somewhat deflating addendum at the bottom of their story:

Correction: March 30, 2011
A previous version of this article misstated how many of the president's proposals to reduce the country's reliance on imported oil were new in his speech on Wednesday. None of them were, not one of them.

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Synder Administration inexplicably blocks outdoor burn barrel ban; and it is not an April Fools joke

2011-03-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

April 1 was to have been the day Michigan’s ban on burning household garbage in backyard burn barrels took effect. It would have taken Michigan off the dubious list of a handful of states that still allow the practice.

Now Gov. Rick Snyder’s Department of Environmental Quality has halted the ban They say they want to review it and provide more public input.

It sounds like an April Fools Day joke. But it’s not.

It’s appropriate for Snyder, the new sheriff in town, to take a hard look at pending decisions made by his predecessor. New governor, new philosophy. But seriously, who in the administration looked at the medieval practice of outdoor trash burning and thought “hmmmm….maybe we should take a second look at whether it’s not a good idea to spew dioxins, particulate pollution, carbon monoxide, VOC’s, hexachlorobenzene, PAH’s, benzene, toluene, hydrogen cyanide and other dangerous stuff I can’t pronounce into the environment with no safeguards, filters, scrubbers or limits?”

The EPA is unequivocal about the dangers: Many dangerous health conditions can be caused by inhaling or ingesting even small amounts of these pollutants. Small children, the elderly, or people with preexisting respiratory conditions can be especially vulnerable....

It’s a troubling decision on what should be a no-brainer issue. And it reinforces the image that Michigan is an ass backwards Rust Belt state struggling to move into modernity.

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Report: 241 Michigan companies employ 10,000 workers in wind and solar supply chains

2011-03-24T22:42:00.000-04:00

...in solar energy jobs

Michigan has 241 companies supplying parts for wind and solar industries and they employ 10,000 Michiganders according to this report issued this week by the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC).

Michigan ranks 4^th in the nation for jobs in the solar industry, and is leads the nation in clean energy patent applications. Clean energy is the fastest growing sector of the state’s economy; there is $10 billion in new clean energy investment in the pipeline right now.

The ELPC report isn’t complicated. It mostly lists the businesses and their locations, including maps. But it’s nice to have around the next time some grump wants to know “so where are these so called clean energy jobs?”

This story in Crain’s Detroit Business finds some other savvy business folks who think the wind and solar industries are a pretty good bet in Michigan.

###

A little something for fun because someone's been too lazy to post new material lately

2011-03-21T21:07:00.000-04:00

"We are cutting the science and warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster."

2011-03-14T21:38:00.000-04:00

This quote on CNN’s earthquake/tsunami coverage tonight from Jeffrey Sachs, an economist, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people:

“The Republicans are cutting the science and the warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster … they’re making terrible decisions, this should be a wakup call to Congress to stop being so anti-scientific, to stop neglecting these powerful forces of nature.”

Make no mistake, the same type of shortsighted nonsense is brewing in Michigan’s legislature, fueled by the anti-government wing of same political party that once was home to proud conservation heroes like Teddy Roosevelt and Bill Milliken.

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Michigan scientists have message for Washington, Upton: Don't make Congress a science-free zone

2011-03-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

Upton: For climate action before he was against it

More than 160 Michigan scientists have signed a letter urging Congress to “reject any measure that would block or delay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the people of Michigan from air pollution and human caused climate change, both of which put public health, agriculture, the environment and our economy at risk.”

The scientists’ appeal comes as Congress, led by Michigan Congressman Fred Upton, considers whether to pass legislation prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas pollution. Upton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was for addressing climate change before he was against it.

Our friends as Climate Crock point out here that Congress is poised to become a science-free zone. And, that it could be worse. A bill in the Montana legislature would declare that climate change isn’t manmade, and if it is that it is “beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana.”

Good God. Don’t give the dimmest bulbs in Michigan’s legislature any ideas.

###

Michigan's Rep. Fred Upton fiddles with climate change show as gas prices, oil dependency continue to burn away at our security and economy

2011-03-08T17:33:00.003-05:00

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s hearing on climate change was today. Nice that the Republicans brought real scientists this time rather than charlatans like Lord Monckton.

The hearing was in advance of a vote on legislation sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. (Upton also chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee)

Unfortunately, the committee addressed the wrong issue. As the New York Times’ Andy Revkin points out, the more immediate, more pressing, and more manageable goal should be our “sustained quest to break the economic shackles imposed by enduring dependence on oil.”

But we've f**cked around for several generations without meaningful action on that, so why start now?

Instead, we got the predictably unfocused questioning and closed mindedness that served more as a forum for Congressmen to grandstand rather than for scientists to explain. Clearly, the ”Doubt is Our Product" strategy of the fossil fuel lobby and their toadies in Congress will continue to be effective for the foreseeable future.

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An interview with me. Because it's all about me.

2011-03-08T08:05:00.003-05:00

I try to make Mitten State not about me. It doesn’t always work out that way. So here’s a link to a short story and lengthy (23 minute) podcast of my appearance on the Greening of the Great Lakes radio show that aired recently on WJR radio and other outlets in Michigan.

It’s a wide-ranging talk with host Kirk Heinze on a number of topics of interest to Michigan’s natural resources. Heinze and his crew do a good job of exploring environmental topics in more depth than most news outlets are able or willing to these days.

Listen, or don’t. But I thought it vitally important that you be given the opportunity to hear me talk. I'm sure you'll agree.

In other news, you'll notice on the right side here I've moved the "Blog List" up to the top of the page, and ordered them chronologically, with the most recent entries at the top...and cool little headlines of what the most recent posts are about. These bloggers are, unfortunately, not me. But they're interesting, in a not-Hugh kind of way. So you might check them out!

Cheers,

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New data: Clean energy in Michigan comes in cheaper than coal; utility says it will only cost one-third of original projections

2011-03-06T23:57:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows renewable energy is way more expensive than the ‘cheap’ coal touted by those slick industry advertisements Right?

Two words: Bull. Puckey. And a pair of stunning new developments in Michigan make that analysis abundantly clear.

First, a refresher: You’ll remember that the Michigan Legislature passed the state’s first renewable energy standard in 2008. It requires utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The utilities also are required to administer energy efficiency programs to help customers reduce their use.

You’ll also recall that the anti-tax and anti-government zealots – along with the fossil fuel lobby – opposed the measures vehemently. Their mouthpieces at places like the Detroit News editorial page complained loudly that the programs were outrageously expensive socialist plots by “the Greens” that would bankrupt the state’s ratepayers.

Now, more than two years in, we have actual data on the cost of these clean energy programs. And two documents released in February show how it’s working out:

#1: The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC), in this analysis (PDF) released last month, reports that the cost of renewable energy in Michigan is 25 percent less expensive than electricity from a new coal fired power plant. It further reports that the cost of saving energy through the new efficiency programs is one-tenth of the cost of providing it with a new coal plant. These renewable energy costs are based on actual contract prices, not guesswork. Bottom line: Cheaper. Than. Coal.

#2: Consumers Energy Co., in a rate filing in late February, reports that meeting the renewable energy law’s requirements will cost one-third of its original projection. Instead of $1.5 billion, it will cost ratepayers $500 million to meet the 10 percent standards. Bills will be adjusted. Adjusted downward. Honestly, when was the last time a contractor started a job, and then told the customer “Geez, we didn’t think it would be so easy. We’re cutting your bill by two thirds.”?

Again: Cheaper. Than. Coal. And that’s even before we begin talking about the reduced health care and pollution costs that accompany clean energy. That’s not something you’re likely to read in a Detroit News editorial anytime soon.

###

GOP scuttles two-week pause on billions in tax breaks for Big Oil; and the Tea Partiers are outraged...um....well....not so much

2011-03-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

I don’t see the Tea Party folks quoted in this story, but I’m sure they were screaming loudly about the billions in tax breaks for big oil that were maintained by a mostly party-line vote in the U.S. House. Probably, the reporter just left out their quotes, do ya think?

The next time Republicans trash tax breaks for clean energy industry industries like wind, solar and biomass, just remember what House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said about oil breaks: “… it would single out one industry "and increase their cost of doing business."”

I'm betting he won’t make that argument when it applies to an industry that might compete with the fossil fuel lobby. And I bet the Tea Partiers will be out in force then, given their impartial and principled interest in eliminating tax-break welfare.

Update: WJR's Paul W. Smith's response to my old-fashioned snail mail letter asking him to stop repeating harmful light bulb urban legend

2011-02-25T14:35:00.002-05:00

Writing a letter to Chuck Gadica reminded me of the letter I wrote two months ago to WJR Radio talk show host Paul W. Smith. That’s the one where he's asked to stop repeating the urban legend about HazMat cleanups and broken light bulbs. The legend that makes it easier for fearmongering "contractors" to scam people out of hundreds of dollars.

For responsible journalists, prompt acknowledgement and correction of errors of fact is a ethical and professional obligation. So far, this is all I’ve heard from Paul W.

###

A letter to WDIV Channel 4 Meteorologist Chuck Gadica

2011-02-25T08:18:00.001-05:00

Chuck Gadica

Hello Chuck (Gadica)

Thank you very much for the piece you did tonight (Thursday, Feb. 24 on the 11 o’clock) about why a warming planet may result in more precipitation. Using the sponges with the demonstration made it easily understandable for a lay audience (I might steal the idea myself!)

It surely helped inform the shrill dialogue over whether more snowstorms and rainfall amounts disprove climate change theory. They don’t.

I was stunned, however that you referred to rising global temperatures twice as an uncertain proposition. (“…if we are warming…”) Even the most skeptical scientists now acknowledge that the climate has been warming for some time. Dr. Patrick Michaels – a leading skeptic and one of few climatologists who openly challenges the IPCC report – told a panel discussion audience in Detroit two years ago that the planet was most assuredly warming, (although he believes mankind may not be a significant driver in that trend). He told the audience that making the argument that ‘the planet is not warming’ is a discredit to the skeptics’ cause because it is so easily and thoroughly disproved.

The data is unambiguous. NOAA reports that 2010 tied for the warmest year on global record, and that it was the 34^th consecutive year that global temperatures exceeded the 20^th Century average. (emphasis mine).

The question of how significant a contribution mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions make to this warming climate; and the ranges of temperatures and changes we might see in the future are addressed most rigorously in the IPCC report, which concludes both the contribution and effects are/will be significant. Of course, there are no precise answers to these important questions.

However, the simpler question of whether the planet is warming -- or not -- is abundantly clear through NOAA’s recorded data and that of other agencies throughout the world.

Your help in explaining science to your viewers is invaluable, and you do it very well….but I hope in the future you will make it clear to viewers that the data show unambiguously that the earth is getting warmer, and has been for many decades.

Thank you very much for your time,

Hugh McDiarmid Jr.

Farmington Resident\15 year WDIV viewer

(Phone number)

RoboCop won't keep our best and brightest here; Woodward Light Rail might

2011-02-17T16:19:00.001-05:00

Your move, creep!

Today’s news was peppered with puffery about the ridiculous flap over the Detroit RoboCop statue. But if you were diligent, you could find real news in the form of this story on the exciting light rail project that looks (finger crossed) like it might actually happen along Woodward Avenue in Detroit. There’s a video, too.

Yes, it’s expensive. So are roads. So is owning, maintaining and insuring a personal vehicle (which 25 percent of Detroiters don’t have). Light rail critics don’t seem to have any alternatives better than shuffling along with a broken status quo that isn’t working for many, many people in this proud city and the inner-ring suburbs that neighbor it. “Just say no” is not a plan.

RoboCop won’t keep our young people from fleeing to cool cities like Chicago. A modern public transportation system might. This is a start.

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Northern Michigan gas well leak should strengthen calls for public discussion of fracking regulations, impending natural gas boom

2011-02-10T23:56:00.002-05:00

Photo (not the leaking well) Heather Rousseau, Circle of Blue

Earlier this week a natural gas well in northern Michigan was abruptly shut down after hazardous toxic chemicals leaked from it. There will be an investigation and follow up to ensure that nearby water wells are not poisoned.

Natural gas is the only fossil fuel that provides Michigan with some measure of energy independence. (That is, we import all our coal, and almost all our oil but 25 percent of our gas is from in-state wells). We’ve done gas extraction for decades with minimal problems save for the marring of landscapes with access roads, pipelines and processing stations. It’s ugly and intrusive, and it’s part of the tradeoff (it’s near zero degrees as I write this, with the furnace furiously burning the stuff.)

But there are significant environmental and health risks, including the danger of water contamination from toxic chemicals involved in the extraction technique known as underground hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” The federal Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a study of the full range of fracking’s environmental risks.

In Michigan those risks may soon increase exponentially. A huge new boom in natural gas extraction is on the horizon, foreshadowed by natural gas rights auctions in 2010 where speculators spent seven times more money buying gas drilling rights than ever before. The gas they want is far deeper underground than the traditional deposits we’ve mined, meaning up to 100 times the volume of chemical-laced water must be used. Some of that chemical broth is left underground. The rest must be recovered, stored, transported and disposed of in deep injection wells. The kinds and amounts of the chemicals used are a trade secret.

I did some reporting on the issue for the Michigan Environmental Council in a 2010 two-story package here and here. At that time, Hal Fitch, the head of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Geological Survey, told me he believed the state’s existing rules were adequate to protect drinking water, lakes, and streams should a new frenzy of more intensive gas drilling take place.

Fitch says that Michigan has better regulations than many other states where fracking leaks and spill have had disastrous consequences.

Even so it seems reasonable – even incumbent – on the state and the industry to explain the new natural gas landscape to Michiganders as we prepare to push into a new, uncharted era of drilling intensity. A robust series of public meetings could both educate the public and provide citizen input to state regulators. If the rules are indeed adequate they should stand up to public scrutiny.

To date, however, neither Fitch’s agency nor the industry have seemed eager to begin a public dialogue. Maybe the Benzie County spill will change that. Indeed, the initial Associated Press story indicates that regulators will “likely…review some drilling regulations.”

That review should be transparent, in public, and with citizen participation. Not behind closed doors.

###

Climate conspiracy theories fall like snowflakes from Detroit News columnists' keyboards

2011-02-07T23:10:00.000-05:00

On Feb. 2, Detroit News Opinion Page Editor Manny Lopez took his favorite whipping boy, Al Gore, to task for Gore’s suggestion that the recent Midwest snowstorm may have been intensified by climate change. He lectured “Goreacle and his lemmings” that the storm had nothing to do with climate, but was “part of that pesky little thing called weather.”

Only two days later, Detroit News cartoonist Henry Payne, who sits on the News’ editorial board with Lopez, wrote that, because of snowfall in Dallas, “global warming” had been “debunked on the grandest stage of all: The Super Bowl.” It was, he wrote, “an embarrassment of Janet Jackson-like proportions” for Gore.

Discerning readers may be puzzled how the News’ braintrust can simultaneously declare both that the snowstorm had no bearing on climate change theory and that it debunks climate change in a most humiliating way. But regular readers of the News’ editorial columnists and bloggers are not surprised.

In a Feb. 3 column, Payne tells us that the only people left supporting climate change theory are "the elites and their crony capitalist backers" who are sucking up taxpayer subsidies for windmills (presumably they, not the poor little coal and oil industries are calling the shots in Washington now), asserts that a cold spell in parts of America has climate change adherents “in a panic” and spins the usual climate conspiracy theory involving thousands of crooked scientists worldwide. Plus, there’s a bonus conspiracy theory! A worldwide coordinated cover up of "the scientific scandal of the century" by the world’s media.

Possibly the frenzy has something to do with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s recent data showing that 2010 tied the warmest year on global record. Or, perhaps someone is angling for an invitation to a guest spot on a Fox News pundit shoutfest. Either way, News readers deserve less hysteria and more level headedness from their opinion leaders.

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John Engler takes helm of CEO group pitching energy efficiency, addressing climate change: Is the world spinning off its axis?

2011-02-06T21:07:00.002-05:00


Gov. John Engler

As governor of Michigan from 1991-2003, John Engler won few fans in the environmental community. Under his tenure enforcement of environmental laws was anemic, citizen input into natural resource decisions was squelched and important programs to protect citizens and resources were eliminated.

Michigan’s energy efficiency programs were among the casualties of Engler-era cuts. It was a penny-wise and pound-foolish move. Every dollar spent on efficiency programs typically results in $3 saved by businesses or homeowners on their utility bills. Many millions of dollars in unnecessarily high bills have been shelled out by Michiganders over the intervening decades – mostly to out-of-state coal companies – as a result.

Engler most recently was CEO and President of the Washington D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers. Environmentalists said, “well, that figures.” The NAM has never seen an environmental rule or regulation that it’s not willing to bury with an army of lobbyists and a slew of campaign contributions. Even NAM member Duke Energy, which operates coal power plants, quit the group in 2009 partly because of NAM’s Neanderthal-like position on climate change.

In January, Engler changed jobs, becoming President of the Business Roundtable (BRT), an association of the CEOs of the nation’s top companies – firms with a collective $6 trillion in revenue and 12 million employees.

“Well, that figures again, right”? You’re damn straight. I mean right there on the Business Roundtable web site you can find reprehensible positions like…..um….like…..wait , what the....?

Under the “energy” tab of BRT’s Sustainable Growth section there’s this: “Business Roundtable members have committed to aggressive energy efficiency programs and recognize the important role of energy savings in improving the bottom line. We encourage the development of policies that promote significant energy efficiency increases in our residential and commercial buildings and encourage improvements in the efficiency in industrial processes.”

Does Gov. Engler know about this? Hmmm…maybe he figured it was a bone to toss the public while the BRT pursued its ultimate mission of crushing attempts to regulate carbon pollution. So, back to the Sustainable Growth page we go and find..….oh my! “Business Roundtable was the first broad-based business group to agree on the need to address climate change through collective action, and we remain committed to limiting GHG emissions and setting our nation on a more sustainable path. The environmental and energy challenges facing the world are serious obstacles to economic growth and can only be managed by thoughtful and far-sighted government policies and business strategies. Threats to water quality and quantity, rising greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of climate change – along with increasing energy prices and growing demand – are of great concern.”

There’s more of this tree hugger stuff sprinkled throughout the site, including video of the member CEO’s talking about sustainability and talk about the tremendous potential for new clean energy technologies to create economic growth.

Maybe it’s all greenwashing. Maybe Engler is actually intends to banish such socialist babble from the BRT’s platforms. Maybe the wisdom of old age and hindsight have changed the man’s views. And maybe this notice listing Engler as a speaker at something called the Great Energy Efficiency Day on Capitol Hill is some kind of bizarre hoax.

In any event, it will be interesting to see if the former governor changes his tune on key energy issues during the next few years. And if he does, if Michigan’s environmental community will warm up to him, at least a little?

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Pollution law enforcement in Michigan: Waiting to see how the Snyder/Wyant agenda plays out

2011-01-25T11:59:00.000-05:00

Dan Wyant

Dan Wyant is the new chief of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

During this interview with the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) Wyant touched on numerous topics of interest for those who want fair, firm and uniform enforcement of laws protecting Michigan’s lakes, woods, cities and people.

Some of Wyant’s answers to MEC’s questions are reassuring. For instance, he said the administration has no intention of rolling back regulations on factory farm pollution.

Some raise yellow flags: He’s big on “voluntary” compliance programs for those same farms (that’s fine as long as “voluntary” isn’t code for replacing enforcement of mandatory laws).

On other answers, he punts to his boss, Gov. Rick Snyder: Wyant’s position on the wisdom of new coal-burning power plants will come from Snyder. So, we’ll wait and see.

The most important aspect of Wyant’s DEQ leadership will be the message that he and Gov. Snyder send to DEQ staff. The staff must hear that the administration has their backs when they enforce pollution laws fairly and firmly – whether the violator is the corner dry cleaners or a powerful international company.

There is a lot of pressure from interests that would like Michigan’s environmental regulators to back off and stand down. Some in the anti-government crowd were even hoping that Snyder would eliminate the DEQ entirely. That’s not going to happen.

Both Snyder and Wyant have said publicly that Michigan's splendid natural resources are drivers for our economy -- both in terms of tourism and the quality of life that makes people want to live, work, raise families and build businesses here. They've also said they want to cut red tape, speed issuance of permits to pollute and remove regulatory hurdles for business.

Doing both -- firmly enforcing pollution laws while reducing regulatory red tape -- is possible. It will take determination, quality leadership and buy in from the DEQ staff.

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Michigan's House Dem leadership shows how NOT to reinvigorate Michigan's economy, or their beleagured political party

2011-01-13T14:53:00.003-05:00

While we're at it, let's build this too!

Demand for electricity has dropped to a 12-year low in much of Michigan – scuttling plans for power plants like Consumers Energy’s shelved Bay City plant.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency savings – part of the energy reforms passed by the State Legislature in 2008 – are finally kicking into gear bringing jobs and revitalizing industry. Green jobs (pdf) was among the only sector of Michigan’s economy to expand during the economic despair of the past eight years.

The landscape is such that Michigan’s Public Service Commission has concluded

that no new coal-fired power generating plants are needed for at least 12 years. Across the nation, 138 proposed coal plants have been dropped or put on indefinite hold in the past three years.

So what visionary move was announced today by the brand-spanking new leadership of the Michigan House of Representatives Democratic caucus and their chief, House Minority Leader Rep. Richard Hammel?

Why, construction of a new coal-fired power plant of course. What better way to stimulate the economy than raising electricity rates, undermining the growth of clean energy industries and forcing ratepayers to mail $9 billion to other states to buy coal over the next 40 years to generate electricity the experts say we won't need until 2022 or later?

Folks, we’re not making this stuff up.

Here’s what the environmental community had to say about the Dem plan.

Many of the House Democrats were not on board with the coal plant plank in the leadership’s job creation platform,. which included other proposals like construction of the DRIC bridge over the Detroit River. They stayed away, or on the fringes, of the press conference today. And the Democrats on the Senate side – what’s left of them after the midterm elections – decided not to join their colleagues in such nonsense.

If I were one of the Democratic reps among the 90 freshmen legislators feeling their way along the corridors of power this week, I’d be mighty uneasy with my leadership right now. Kicking off 2011 by supporting dirty, antiquated, expensive and unnecessary power technologies hardly seems a good start to revitalizing Michigan. Or the Democratic Party.

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End of an era: North Woods Call's Glen Sheppard's commanding, combative voice for Michigan's natural resources is stilled

2011-01-12T12:39:00.000-05:00


Shep

Mitten State is back from an exhilarating two weeks vacationing in animal-dense Costa Rica where surf, sun and wildlife were in abundance.

We’ll be back in the saddle soon, but wanted to share the sad – if belated – news of the passing of North Woods Call editor Glen Sheppard. I won’t carry on about Shep, since Gerald Volgenau captured his essence so genuinely in this piece he wrote in 2009,

Both ‘bulldog’ and ‘legend’ are words that have been trivialized by overuse. Shep – through is relentless reporting and crusading for the integrity of the state’s woods, water and wildlife, deserves both of them. As the Call's masthead says, it is an "admittedly biased newspaper....there is only one side to any issue involving natural resources: Nature's!" RIP Shep. And be certain that some of us will carry on the fight – though perhaps never so fully and purely as you have…….

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On holiday hiatus, and wishing all a prosperous New Year! (With something about our awesome Great Lakes to stick to an environmental theme!)

2010-12-25T17:53:00.000-05:00

Mitten State is taking a holiday hiatus in a warmer climate until mid-January, and wishing all fine New Year. For Michiganders we share hope for a resurgent 2011 that sees economic recovery anchored by growing clean energy, tourism, rail transit, Smart Growth and other natural resource-based industries.

We will return in mid-January with new Governor Rick Snyder and his team, and a Republican legislature vowing serious financial restructuring. In the midst of 2010’s economic malaise and all the political changes one thing stays constant: We are the only state in the Union, no…..the only place on the planet …. blessed with primary stewardship for 18 percent of the world’s fresh surface water supply. No other state lies entirely within the basin of the world’s most tremendous freshwater resource. Let’s say that again: Our Great Lakes -- connected to our rivers, inland lakes, ponds, creeks, streams, and wetlands -- are a world-class natural resource and our ace in the hole. Let’s protect them.

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Fearmongering with falsehoods: Wherein I ask WJR's John McCulloch to stop perpetuating harmful urban legends about light bulbs

2010-12-23T13:48:00.000-05:00

McCulloch

Environmentalists -- frequently criticized by foes for fearmongering -- have no corner on the market as aptly demonstrated this morning by conservative WJR (Detroit) talk show host John McCulloch's irresponsible comments on the cleanup of broken light bulbs. This kind of nonsense creates an atmosphere where criminals are empowered to rip off frightened people who swallow the urban legends that McCulloch peddled this morning. Here's my letter snail mailed today:

John McCulloch

News/Talk 760 WJR
3011 West Grand Blvd. Suite 800
Detroit, MI 48202

Hello John:

Caught part of your Friday, 12/23 segment on efforts to repeal the federal light bulb

efficiency standards that essentially ban the incandescents.

While I support implementation of the new standards, I respect and understand the argument against them. That is not my reason for writing.

I write to ask you to please stop perpetuating the false claim that broken compact fluorescent light bulbs require professional Haz-Mat cleanups and that evacuating one’s home is an appropriate response to a broken bulb.

Unscrupulous contractors have preyed on frightened homeowners, fleecing them for thousands of dollars in scams involving CFL cleanups. This outrageous and probably illegal scheme is made possible when respected personalities like yourself perpetuate the myth that such cleanups are necessary. It is a scare tactic that poisons the policy debate with falsehoods and gives credence to the loathsome thieves who prey on the fears of people who figure it must be true because John McCulloch said it.

CFL bulbs do contain mercury and require care when broken. I’ve done it. It’s a pain the rear. But it’s neither a crisis nor a grave danger. Here are some sources for learning what’s required:

The fact-checking service snopes.com concludes that broken bulbs are neither a grave danger to a home’s inhabitants, nor do they require a professional cleanup: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
The EPA’s guidelines for CFL cleanup: http://www.epa.gov/cfl/

The cleanups require neither the evacuation of one’s home, nor the employment of outside contractors.

I don’t seek or expect to change your position on the light bulb standards. But I do respectfully suggest that you provide listeners with accurate information.

Thank you for your time.

Hugh McDiarmid Jr.

Farmington, MI

hughmcdiarmid@gmail.com

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Bitch please, we're from Michigan! And hey, whaddya know, we lead the nation in rail trails!

2010-12-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

There’s a Facebook group called ”Bitch please, I’m from Michigan.” It has 72,000 members.

Unemployment in your state nearing double digits? Bitch please, I’m from Michigan! Potholes on your commute? Two inches of snow shutting your Washington D.C. roads? Please!

We love that Facebook page. We’re tough. And we aren’t afraid to tell the rest of the world to kiss our backsides when we need to.

But, today, we put a moratorium on complaints and celebrate a huge Michigan success story. As the Grand Rapids Press’ Howard Meyerson reported here last week, Michigan now leads the nation in the number of miles of abandoned railroad converted to public trails! It almost makes you want to ask, “Bitch seriously. In Michigan?”

We have almost 2,500 miles of trails that are a huge draw for walkers, joggers, cyclists, families, skiers, dog walkers and outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes. And it has all happened since 1991 when the Hart-Montague Trail became the first one in Michigan. The Michigan trails success is the product of a lot of hard work in local communities, forward-looking planning and financial backing from individuals, governments and foundations. And leadership from groups like the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.

Perhaps the most telling passage in Meyerson’s column is the observation that the trails plans were initially regarded with skepticism, confusion, and hostility: “The early public hearings were loud with fear about muggings and vandalism, livestock harassment and other suspected problems. Few realized that the trails would raise property values, stimulate small business growth, add vitality to small communities and become regional tourist attractions.”

Twenty years from now, I wonder which of our new initiatives we will be saying similar things about: Passenger railroad service? Renewable energy systems? Limits on climate pollution? The designing of walkable downtowns aimed to please people rather than cars?

Each of those issues has detractors who say it will never work. Too expensive. Too disruptive. Too…..different. Surely not every new idea will work out. But we can not be afraid to try. And what do we have to lose? Our status as the nation’s most miserable state economy? I mean, bitch, please!

###

More irrelevant and boring information: 2010 on pace to be planet's warmest ever

2010-12-13T16:18:00.001-05:00

Snowstorm!

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about why the public discussion on climate change really does not hinge on the science at all. The discussion has been hijacked by forces that have little regard for the fuzzy, complicated, scienc-ey stuff.

And true to form, the loudest of the loudmouths have seized on the American Midwest’s snowstorms and cold snaps as proof of the climate change hoax. (Nevermind, um, the record high temperatures in Phoenix and Southern California.)

So even though the science doesn’t seem to push the public opinion needle, it’s still interesting to go all Old School every once in a while and see what the data says. Lately, it says that 2010 is on pace to be the warmest year ever recorded on our humble planet.

Why the Village of Milford is thankful that the legislature robbed Peter to pay Paul (and what happens when that money runs out?)

2010-12-13T00:15:00.000-05:00

Charming Milford

Eleven thousand contaminated sites, most with no responsible party left alive to pay for a cleanup. So the state has raided another fund to pay enough to work on the riskiest of sites. It’ll last for 3, maybe 4 years. A temporary, one-time fix for a crucial program (Hmmmmm….seems I’ve heard of that happening before in Lansing.)

At least places like the Coe’s Cleaners site in the stunningly cute Village of Milford in rural Oakland County won’t be abandoned. The contamination threatens the village’s drinking water supply. Village Manager Arthur Shufflebarger says, "It's a longtime source of contamination. If that would have been discontinued, it would have been a huge concern. I'm very pleased that another source of support has been offered."

So what about when the money runs out? Or, maybe we even want to address more than a handful of these sites as a way to get Michigan’s towns and cities to attract businesses and industry on reclaimed sites of contamination (brownfields, as they’re called)?. How about a 3/8ths of a cent sales tax on the 2012 ballot to let Michigan voters decide whether to permanently fund cleanup programs?

The devil, of course, is in the details. And in the politics.

Stay tuned on this one.

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Money to keep clean up leaking gas and oil tanks snatched by the Michigan Legislature to shovel into general fund abyss

2010-12-05T17:33:00.000-05:00

There are more than 9,000 old, leaking underground petroleum storage tanks in Michigan. Where there’s an owner alive and viable (a responsible party), they are required to clean the mess up.

We pay 7/8ths of a cent on every gallon of gas we buy in Michigan to fund a program to help clean up the worst of these places when no responsible party is available to send the bill to. That’s important because some sites release dangerous petroleum pollutants into groundwater, streams or lakes. Others pollute nearby water wells. It’s also important because it puts toxic land that nobody would otherwise want back into productive use with potential to create jobs.

The tax was expiring this year, and the Legislature renewed it. You’d think that’s good news, but it’s not so simple. Legislators are using much of the money to shovel into general fund budget holes.

The program isn’t being picked on uniquely. Legislators have been robbing “non essential” programs for years to scrabble together the state budget. And it’s going to get more cannibalistic, with $3 billion in cuts required for the next legislature to balance the budget. Cuts like that mean huge changes for lots of people. One set of proposals made by the lame duck administration in Lansing calls for privatizing the University of Michigan and eliminating State Police road patrols. Against cuts of that scale, small fry like toxic leaking underground tanks stand no chance.

So let’s just be honest. If we’re unwilling to pay enough taxes to clean up orphaned sites of contamination let’s stop collecting the 7/8ths of a cent tax altogether. We’ll have saved drivers 13 cents at each fill-up. And we’ll just write off the contaminated lands as permanent blight in our neighborhoods – and our reduced property values -- in exchange for our 13 cents.

###

Breaking News: Michigan Legislature passes restrictions on phosphorus in lawn fertilizer!

2010-12-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

In the last lame duck legislative session of the year today, there was some good news for Michigan’s waters. The House and Senate passed restrictions on phosphorus in lawn fertilizer that will have direct, and significant impact on water quality in our lakes and streams.

Michigan joins several other Great Lakes states including Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin and Illinois in ensuring this largely unnecessary problem is no longer used indiscriminately on lawns that don’t need it.

Congrats to all those who worked, literally, for years to make this happen.

Your handy guide to translating the fringe arguments against offshore wind energy development in the Great Lakes

2010-11-23T23:37:00.005-05:00

What turbines would look like, from left, at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 miles

Michigan has vast potential to generate energy from wind. Most of that potential is in the offshore waters of the Great Lakes. Now, the state is poised to adopt the first comprehensive rules for wind development in the Lakes.

It won’t be easy. Not everyone likes the idea of altering the view of our spectacular Great Lakes with wind turbines. Others don’t mind the view, as long as it’s not in their back yard – or more accurately, in front of their pricey lakefront properties.

Now Michigan’s anti-government bloggers are also up in arms about wind turbines. Their reasons run the gamut. They include cost (a debate worth having). Details over how to regulate them (again, a worthwhile discussion). And environmental concerns (Fringe Right bloggers mourning for the environment? Sweet Jesus! Has that EVER happened before. OK, we’ll get to that in a moment!)

Honestly, those in the distant hinterlands of conservativism will never support offshore wind turbines for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with cost or environmental concerns.

So, in order to prepare for the upcoming onslaught of doublespeak, I’m offering some translations for the arguments you will hear. But first, a note on costs.

Costs for wind energy keep going down while costs for conventional energy keep going up. In fact, Massachusetts regulators just OK’d a 15 year power purchase agreement for Cape Wind, the nation’s first offshore wind energy development.

The Massachusetts approval came after exhaustive review: 13 days of hearings, more than 1,300 exhibits and 3,000 pages of transcript. The conclusion: "[I]t is abundantly clear that the Cape Wind facility offers significant benefits that are not currently available from any other renewable resources. We find that these benefits outweigh the costs of the project." (and if you click on the link, don’t neglect to read the part about the 1,000 jobs created).

Now, the translations:

--- Wind energy shouldn't need taxpayer subsidies means (=) We have never raised a peep about the massive subsidies for conventional, polluting energy sources, but we’re mad as hell when it applies to something environmentalists support, Governor Granholm wants, or anything new and different.

--- Plans to regulate offshore wind are not up to par = Any regulation is bad. Any regulatory agency is evil. And anyone trying to enforce regulations is a jack booted thug.

--- The Great Lakes will be environmentally damaged by turbines = We don’t give a flying fruck about the environment when we support offshore oil drilling in the Great Lakes, oppose mercury emissions reductions, fight bans on water diversions, cheer more polluting coal power plants, oppose tougher vehicle emissions standards, fight against energy efficiency programs, encourage urban sprawl, urge lawmakers to bankrupt natural resource protection, or try to bury public transit initiatives. But, um, this time we do care. Really.

--- The wind doesn’t blow all the time, so it’s unreliable = This is an awesome sound bite. Game, set and match....beeeootch! We are betting nobody besides policy geeks goes to the trouble of exploring how decentralized power grids, demand load management and natural gas backup systems make this issue manageable.

--- Coal power is tried and true, no reason to change = We talk a good game about embracing American ingenuity, cutting edge technology and striking out boldly for new frontiers like our manly heroes of the American Revolution. But when it comes down to it we're scared.

--- We don’t have faith in the leaders supporting wind energy = We despise Gov. Granholm and everything she stands for. We will despise Gov.-elect Snyder as well, should he dare cross us. The 2010 election was clearly a mandate against offshore wind.

--- It’s those pansy ass tree huggers who want wind energy = It’s those pansy ass tree huggers who want wind energy.

###,

Biblical stewardship of the earth and its creatures? Not in Rep. John Shimkus' truncated Bible

2010-11-16T17:21:00.000-05:00

Rep. Shimkus: Don't worry

Not sure how I missed this, but Congressman John Shimkus of Illinois wants to be the next chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. And Rep. Shimkus has a rather unique perspective

on climate change.

He believes that mankind is incapable of harming the planet because the Bible declares God, not man, will destroy the earth. “The earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth,” he said.

Now careful readers will note that the previous link was to the left-wing, Soros funded, Huffington Post which is part of the failed Pelosi-Huffington agenda and a tool of Statists, ecoterrorists and Communists. But Shimkus’ views were also chronicled in the New York Times, which is simply part of the liberal drive-by media and therefore more trustworthy. I guess.

Anyway, Rep. Shimkus declared that the conservative and Tea Party victories in the 2010 means that “The climate debate has, at least for two years, has ended with this election.”

In open defiance of Rep. Shimkus’ decree, climatologists across the nation apparently plan to continue to do research for the next two years. Some of these climatologists have never even slept with Al Gore. So, you see, technically the debate really isn’t over.

It also may be news to Rep. Shimkus that religious leaders across the nation and the world have called for action on climate change, through organizations like the Evangelical Climate Initiative.

Even within the modest environmental coalitions in Michigan, there are faith-based groups working toward sensible responses to climate change. Groups like the IHM Sisters in Monroe; the Michigan chapter of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life out of Oakland County and Michigan Interfaith Power and Light in Royal Oak.

These groups have bizarre ideas about the Bible teaching us that we must be stewards of the earth and the creatures that inhabit it. Stuff like: Lev. 25:23-24. The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

I don’t know where Rep. Shimkus’ gets his laissez faire Biblical interpretation. But I sure as hell hope he does not inflict such dangerous nonsense on our nation from the pulpit of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

###

Wisconsin and Ohio to feds: Take your rail money and shove it!

2010-11-15T23:57:00.001-05:00

Here in Michigan we’ve learned the hard way not to put all our eggs in one basket. The “right-sizing” of the domestic automobile industry – which Michiganders complacently assumed would always provide the lion’s share of our employment – resulted in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and has saddled us with the most miserable economy in a nation full of miserable state economies.

As this analysis notes, the percentage of Michigan’s gross domestic product tied to cars was 25 perecent in 1963. By 1998 it was barely 5 percent. As economist Charles Ballard notes in the analysis, “In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, having a non-diversified economy was not a problem since the dominant industry in Michigan -- autos -- was so wildly successful. Carmakers reigned supreme for so long here that Michigan seemed to develop the mindset that the good times would last forever.”

For the same reasons we need to diversify our economy, we need to diversify our transportation options. Putting virtually all our eggs in one basket – personal vehicles driving on public roads and highways – leaves us vulnerable in lots of ways: wild fluctuations in oil prices; chronic and ongoing underfunding of roads; and shifting population patterns that demand new and bigger roads in certain places, while existing and underutilized older roads still require the same level of upkeep as they did when they were in their prime.

So it is with curiosity that we learn that our neighbors in Ohio and Wisconsin are poised to tell the federal government to Shove It when they offer to help diversify those states’ transportation systems by helping them invest in better passenger railroad transportation.

If they do, Michigan stands a good chance of getting some of that money to help reduce its reliance on crumbling roads and expensive personal vehicles.

No, we can’t abandon our roads any more than we can abandon our automakers. But we can’t pretend that roads will always and forever be the smartest and most dominant way to get from Point A to Point B.

So if Ohio and Wisconsin want to flip the bird to federal help in hedging against an uncertain transportation future, we’ll be glad to help spend that unwanted money to put a few of our eggs in a different basket. We’ve learned the hard way.

###

Gov. Rick Snyder as a blank slate on conservation and natural resource issues: Let's paint a picture of Teddy Roosevelt or William Milliken, shall we?

2010-11-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

Snyder: Blank slate

Sweeping changes to the political landscape effected by voters last week are not good news for environmental protection in Michigan or across the nation. The new Republican majorities and angry Tea Party-style anti-government pols in the Michigan and U.S. Houses will be less inclined to support the bold action we need on issues like climate, transportation, Great Lakes stewardship and scaling back huge subsidies for destructive and finite energy resources like oil.

But how will Michigan’s new governor, Rick Snyder, respond to the challenges of protecting natural resources in a bankrupt economy and amid a political climate where enforcement of environmental laws is frowned upon?

TR: Speak softly, carry big stick

Will he be the man who excelled on conservation and water issues in a primary debate last spring, who served on the Nature Conservancy Board of Directors and who was endorsed in the primary election by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters?

Or will he be the man whose recent statements on cutting regulation and oversight are boilerplate anti-government talking points; the man who wants to fast-track dirty coal plants and whose platform includes a plan to grease the skids for huge polluting factory farms owned by out-of-staters at the expense of small, locally-owned farms?

No one knows, of course. But Great Lakes environmentalist, author and historian Dave Dempsey wrote perhaps the best analysis of the Rick Snyder question mark here.

In the meantime, every word Snyder utters will be magnified and overanalyzed and probably blown out of proportion. Every appointment he makes – especially for key environmental posts like director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, will be scrutinized and dissected and agonized about.

But for the moment….he’s a blank slate. And we can always imagine that he will become the kind of Republican environmental champion that are so few and far between these days.

There's precedent. Dearth of environmental backbone hasn’t always been so prevalent in the GOP. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a crusader for conservation and established our national parks system against hostile foes in his own party. Even President Ronald Reagan, the poster child for conservative principles, signed tough tailpipe emissions rules as governor of California, later stating: "I'm proud of having been one of the first to recognize that states and the federal government have a duty to protect our natural resources from the damaging effects of pollution that can accompany industrial development." Yeah, Ronald Reagan.

In Michigan, Republican Gov. William G. Milliken stayed true to his GOP principles while protecting the state’s resources. He helped establish Michigan’s pioneering “Bottle Bill” deposit on beverage containers. During his tenure he was considered a moderate Republican. In today’s climate there is no room for moderates. Right Wing bloggers – most of them too young to remember Milliken or moderate politics at all, vilify him as a liberal traitor.

Many Republicans believe conservative principles aren’t synonymous with abandoning environmental protection. They continue to keep the faith through organizations like Republicans for Environmental Protection. The group’s president, Rob Sisson is a proud Michigander and the former mayor of Sturgis.

So we'll see what the next couple years bring with Governor Snyder and a new legislature. It's gonna be interesting either way.

###

The National Mining Association sees Jihadists at the gates! Or is that the EPA?

2010-11-01T19:18:00.000-04:00

“We need to elect strong environmental leaders tomorrow to defeat the pollution jihad that corporations are waging against our environment and public health.”

Imagine the howls of outrage from the ”drown government in a bathtub" crowd if environmentalists had issued this statement, comparing American corporations to Muslim holy warriors, and, by inference, terrorists.

Betting though, you haven’t heard of Luke Popovich of the National Mining Association, who called enforcement of environmental laws by the Environmental Protection Agency a “regulatory jihad” in this piece by the New York Times on the millions spent by the industry to blunt enforcement of, and elect officials hostile to environmental regulations they deem excessive.

Given the mood of the country, it’s probably ridiculous to suggest that the fossil fuel industry’s energy and money might better be spent deploying strong clean energy technologies and developing futuristic energy futures. No, better to cling tooth and nail to the status quo.

Even so, isn’t comparing pollution regulators in the U.S. to holy warriors in Islamic countries a bit over the top? Rush? Frank? Glenn?

No, I didn’t think so.

###

You want some input on utopia? Help Michigan Environmental Council craft the Michigan of 2060

2010-10-27T17:34:00.000-04:00

The Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) has taken a big step back from the everday chaos of crises, pressing issues and deadlines to issue a draft Michigan 50 Year Vision for public comment.

The Vision lays out specific goals for a Michigan, circa 2060, that will be vibrant, healthy and engaging. You know…strong central cities, virtual energy independence, clean lakes and rivers, reliable and affordable transit options. Utopia, basically.

The Vision was more than a year in the making, and kicked off online today with the unveiling of the Water Vision document. The Water Vision – and the five other visions that will be unveiled in coming weeks – propose ambitious goals for the year 2060 as well as intermediate policy goals at 2, 10 and 20 years.

MEC is asking for plenty of public input between now and December from every corner of Michigan. It’s an ambitious undertaking, directed by MEC President Chris Kolb, with whom I share an office wall and a combative sense of humor (we like to pick on each other).

Anyway, such big picture things aren’t usually my cup of tea. Mission statements, strategic plans, goal-setting …. anything that peers more than a week into the future makes me fearful and bored silly at the same time. I blame 22 years of deadline journalism. Give me a crisis and a figurative gun to my head and the job will get done. Give me three months to write something and I’ll noodle ineffectually for 88 days before cranking into a 48 hour burst of adrenaline and caffeine, the world’s most popular psychoactive drug!

But I’m pleased with the Michigan 50 Year Vision and its potential for catalyzing constructive dialogue about Michigan’s future. Please consider taking a look and providing some input. There are spots on the web site to enter comments, and to view comments that have already been made.

And, if this week’s Water Vision doesn’t float your boat (float your boat…get it?!) wait for our other releases: Energy, Great Cities, Sustainable Communities, Transportation and Agriculture/Natural Resources).

Oh yeah, about the input. We’re moderating it. So if you want to spew bile about race, the President’s birth certificate (Obama, not Kolb), or similarities between enviros and Nazis do it on one of the sites where they’ve already given up on civil discourse.

And, remember, by 2060, there will be no incivility. It’s gonna be great!

###

This just in! Feds award $150 million for high speed Detroit-Chicago passenger railroad link

2010-10-25T14:31:00.000-04:00

Michigan has received $150 million in federal funds toward high speed passenger rail service between Detroit and Chicago. Read about it on the Michigan Environmental Council’s web site, which darn near broke the news in Michigan.

If we can get our legislators to cough up $30 million in matching money, we’re that much closer to a Detroit-Chicago express in less than four hours!

###

Terror in Michigan! Oak trees...no, um, the Mackinac Bridge....maybe. Wait, rattlesnakes! Yes, rattlesnakes spread fear and death...no wait, not death. But fear, yes! Be very afraid!

2010-10-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

Leslie Pluhar died when her tiny car careened off the Mackinac Bridge in 1989.

Michael Jeffery died last year when an oak tree inexplicably fell on him as he was riding his motorcycle near Niles.

Debbie Luna died last month when a vehicle crashed into a gas pump near Grayling, sending the pump flying into her.

None of the deaths resulted in headlines that read “Mackinac Bridge creates panic among drivers” or “Oak trees strike fear into Michiganders” or “Gas stations and death: The untold story.” Yet rattlesnakes bite four people in Michigan this summer and we get: ”Massasauga rattlesnakes strike fear in region.”

Sweet Jesus! Grab the shotgun and bar the door! The Detroit News headline writers have told us what we should fear, and by gum, we're not going outside.

Michigan’s rattlesnakes haven’t killed anyone in at least 40 years, maybe more. They’re shy and sluggish and the smallest and least venomous of any in the U.S.. When they bite in defense they often don’t even release venom. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has a nice primer on the massasauga noting that the few bites that do occur often are the result of people trying to catch or kill the snake. Those folks are are Michigan's budding Darwin awardees.

Bullshit headlines like the News', and stories that fail to address the relative risk of wild animals contribute to the impression that the outdoors is a sinister, dangerous place to be avoided.

As Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods” points out, exaggerated fears of both nature and strangers are conspiring to keeping children indoors – contributing to shorter attention spans, stunted imaginations, obesity and numerous other problems that could be treated by the balm of, say, spending the day building a fort in the backyard bushes with your friends. If it wasn't for the fact that your child would be KILLED INSTANTLY by a rattlesnake or CARRIED OFF IN THE FANGS of a coyote.

“The biggest barrier between kids and the outdoors is the fear that parents feel about strangers and about nature. All you have to do is watch CNN or Fox and you’ll see how they take a handful of crimes against children every year and repeat them over and over again. News media and entertainment media have basically scared us to death, scared us right out of nature.”

As for the stranger danger, what’s with that nasty Nancy Grace woman whose CNN Headline News show always seems to be scrolling “BREAKING NEWS: LANDFILL SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR 4-YEAR OLD BEAUTY QUEEN PENELOPE McTAVISH, STOLEN FROM HER PRINCESS-THEMED BED IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT BY STRANGERS!!!!” Sorry, that woman bugs me.

By the way, the EPA ranks indoor air pollution among the top five public health risks. Rattlesnakes aren’t even on the list.

###

World's climate change panel due for an overhaul in wake of scandals that unraveled the whole rotten, global conspiracy

2010-10-21T00:28:00.000-04:00

Had another interesting email exchange with WJR radio talk show host ~~Rush Limbaugh Lite,~~ Frank Beckmann in which he maintained that my belief that manmade climate change is occurring is because I’ve been “…duped by people who have conned us out of billions of our hard earned dollars through grants and regulations.”

Anyway, Frank and other climate skeptics have seized on each anomaly, inconsistency and error in the IPCC’s climate change theory as proof positive of a global conspiracy. Of which, presumably, I am a part.

Anyway, it’s important to remember that the granddaddy of these issues was the East Anglia email revelations, and that the authors of the emails were exonerated of wrongdoing in four separate investigations.

Skeptics who joyously told us the East Anglia emails were the smoking guns that were going to unravel the whole climate plot are apoplectic that it didn’t turn out that way. No worries….just more proof of the conspiracy, right?

Nonetheless, an overhaul of the way the IPCC operates, as outlined by the journal Nature is probably a smart move. Done right, it will increase transparency and bolster public confidence that has been eroded by opinion leaders, like Beckmann, who have convinced us that thug climatologists are in cahoots with Pruis owners and weak-kneed liberals to take away our guns and sell our children. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, 2010 tied so far for the warmest on record.

You won’t hear that on Beckmann. Or Limbaugh. Or Hannity. Or Beck. Or FOX. Unless you hear only this excerpt: “Cooler-than-average regions included much of Australia, western Canada, parts of the northern United States, parts of western and central Europe, and central Russia.” Smells like a smoking gun to me.

###

Detroit News lets Frank Beckmann spew more unhinged nonsense; so is Stephen Hawking part of the climate change conspiracy?

2010-10-15T12:35:00.001-04:00

Stephen Hawking enjoying the spoils of the climate conspiracy

Conservative radio talk show host and football announcer Frank Beckmann has penned another wild, flailing assault on climate change science in today’s Detroit News. He’s strung together unrelated threads of factually tortured conspiracy theory sandwiched around words like “bogus” “hoax” and “grant seeking environmental alarmists.”

Frank’s columns must be increasingly embarrassing for those at the News who still believe that even the most opinionated opinion columnists should be held to certain standards of intellectual honesty. But it may be par for the course for an editorial page that continues to promote as fact climate contentions that even the most celebrated climate change skeptic-climatologists have denounced.

It would take a huge word count to address each of Frank’s scattershot accusations and pseudo-facts that sail around untethered by accuracy or context. So I leave you with two links:

First, this link from NOAA where you can see lower on the page the “climate dashboard” that shows actual recorded observations for global temperatures, carbon dioxide, sun energy, Arctic sea ice and sea level.

Secondly, this video with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan talking about the greenhouse effect.

Hawking says “…one of the most serious consequences of our actions is global warming brought about by rising levels of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels. The danger is that the temperature increase may become self-sustaining, if it hasn’t done so already.”

Hawking, of course, is a literal genius the world’s most celebrated cosmologist and physicist. But Beckmann might well categorize him as just another “environmental alarmist” who has “fouled the air with their fraud.”

We're Number 27! Report shows unsexy efficiency program is working for ratepayers

2010-10-14T17:35:00.006-04:00

Michigan’s energy efficiency requirements, passed in 2008, require our state’s major utilities to enact programs that make homes, stores and factories more energy efficient. And it’s paying off.

A new report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy shows
Michigan moved up seven spots to number 27 on a ranking of the most energy efficient states.

That’s money in our pockets. Money we’re not spending on electric and gas bills.

It’s not as sexy as wind turbines or solar panels, but it’s the only energy solution that actual saves ratepayers money – roughly $3 in savings for every $1 invested in the program. It also holds at bay the need to build more power generation infrastructure – coal or nuclear plants, wind farms, etc. that drive up our utility rates.
We're talking programs that help businesses and homeowners afford smart low-energy lighting systems, boilers and furnaces that use less fuel, weatherproof windows and insulation to keep the cold out (or the cold in, depending on the season), etc. etc.

And, yes, there’s a line item on our utility bills for “energy optimization” to pay for the program. Seventy-nine cents on my most recent bill. That rankles some jerkwater bubbas.

But if we weren’t paying for efficiency, we’d be paying three times as much for new power production necessary to provide the energy we’re saving through the program.

Here’s hoping the next Michigan will push for even stronger energy efficiency program requirements. It isn’t sexy, but from what I’ve seen neither are they.
###

Update: MEC, MLCV weigh in on Michigan's gubernatorial debate

2010-10-11T23:14:00.001-04:00

Update: Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan League of Conservation Voters weigh in here on Michigan gubernatorial debate shortcomings.

DEBATE FAIL!: Great Lakes? Energy? Transportation? Rebuilding cities? IGNORED.

2010-10-10T21:27:00.000-04:00

Michigan is smack in the middle of the world’s most astounding water system – 18 percent of the world’s fresh surface water surrounds us. It provides 40 million people with drinking water; fuels our water-intensive industrial economy and fertilizes our farmers’ bounty. It is threatened by sewage overflows, deposition of hazardous chemicals, and by Asian carp and other invasives.

We are on the cutting edge of advanced automotive batteries, have a burgeoning clean energy technology industrial sector and a vital tourism economy (all are growing – the only economic sectors in Michigan to do so recently).

We have world-class sand dunes, vast forests, fertile farmland and fantastic hunting, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, boating, mushroom picking, frog-spearing, cricket listening and Petoskey-stone hunting. Stone skipping, too. We also have a few cool cities where smart young college graduates want to live work and play. But not nearly enough.

So how did an hour-long gubernatorial debate take place tonight without any…ANY…mention of the role Michigan’s natural resources play in our economy and quality of life?

Not. a. single. one. Not in their opening or closing comments. Not in the questions from the moderators. The Center for Michigan says you can find the replay right here starting Monday, if you have trouble getting to sleep.

Thumbs down to moderators Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press and Nolan Finley of the Detroit News for ignoring energy, transportation, vibrant cities, and the future of the Great Lakes in favor of queries like “would you forego your salary as governor?” (as if that would make a difference) or “are you tough enough” to play political hardball? (seriously Nolan, how could that question elicit anything other than a minute-long infomercial?)

And thumbs down to Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder for utterly failing to incorporate our state’s important natural assets into any of your answers.

Oh, wait. I rewound the DVR and did find that Bernero did mention “…the green automotive future, the green technology, wind turbines…” during a frenetic monologue about manufacturing. So…there you have it.

Should either candidate want to feign interest in Michigan’s water, land or air,here’s a start. Until then, the hell with it. If this is all you got, I’m leaving the governor’s ballot blank in November.

####

Rick Snyder's boilerplate agriculture plan virtually ignores pollution issues: Where is the insightful, original candidate we saw in the spring?

2010-10-08T11:34:00.004-04:00

Michigan journalist/blogger Eric Baerren says in his recent column that Republican candidate for governor Rick Snyder’s plan for Michigan agriculture involves loosening regulatory reigns on corporate mega-farms.

Indeed, such farms bear no resemblance to the idyllic family farms that probably service your local farmer’s market. They unleash animal feces and urine in amounts equivalent to a medium sized city – with few of the environmental rules that govern the cities' waste. The result in Michigan too often has been horrific overflows of hormone-laced animal sewage that choke the life out of streams and ponds. Because these disasters often occur in sparsely populated rural areas, they don't get much attention.

The Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club has been at the forefront of tracking and detailing these disasters.

Sadly, Snyder’s recently released agriculture plan is filled with boilerplate Republican chatter about reducing red tape, streamlining regulation and how overly zealous inspectors have choked agricultural businesses in Michigan. Other than a couple vague throwaway lines about balancing environmental concerns with economic growth, it includes no acknowledgement of the tremendous challenges of containing and managing the vast amounts of dangerous waste produced by these animal factories.

Most disappointingly, the Snyder document contains none of the nuance and insight that Snyder demonstrated this spring during his excellent performance at an environmental forum for candidates.

I’m looking for reasons to vote for Rick Snyder in November …. I think he’s demonstrated a deeper understanding of the complex issues facing Michigan than has his opponent, Virg Bernero.

But if Snyder is going to abandon his keen insights in favor of letting his positions default into robotic and well-worn partisan grooves, then we’re back to business as usual.

And that would suck.

###

MI Supreme Court to decide whether "any person" really means any person when it comes to law protecting Michigan's natural resources

2010-10-06T17:18:00.013-04:00

There’s a law, the Michigan Environmental Protection Act,
(MEPA) which gives “any person” in Michigan the right to use the courts to protect “…the air, water and other natural resources … from pollution, impairment or destruction.”

If Acme Sand Mining is ripping up globally significant Lake Michigan sand dunes and regulators are doing nothing to stop them, I can file suit to stop it. If Acme then dumps its toxic waste in Lake Superior, I can sue. Even if I live nowhere near the affected dunes and own no Lake Superior frontage, the law presupposes, I have an abiding interest in their health and well being.

At least, that’s the way it is supposed to work. In recent years, conservative-activist Michigan courts have chipped away at MEPA. In several rulings, the law’s scope has been limited. Now, it seems, only persons directly impacted by environmental damage have the right to sue.

I’m not a lawyer. But I wonder what part of “any person” the judges who eroded our citizen rights didn’t understand?

A Michigan Supreme Court case heard Wednesday gives justices the opportunity to definitively decide whether citizens have the right to sue to protect the state’s natural resources.

My employer, the Michigan Environmental Council, filed a "friend of the court” legal brief arguing that the court declare the law means what it says.

Since it was written by a horde of lawyers, it might better for the rest of to read the fine analysis by Sandra Svoboda of Detroit’s Metro Times.

Finally, for those wanting more legal meat to chew on, the whole issue is analyzed here more precisely, and in a more lawyerly fashion by Noah Hall on his Great Lakes Law blog.

###

Asian Carp's buffet may be bare, thanks to another invader who's devouring the base of the food chain like an NFL lineman at Ponderosa

2010-09-30T13:47:00.005-04:00

Ok, so,…the good news is that when the Asian Carp begin multiplying in Lake Michigan, it may not be the Armageddon we’re fearing. The bad news is that’s only because the invasive quagga mussels have already eaten up most of the base of the food chain, leaving slim pickin’s. “Beaten the carp to the buffet table” as one researcher put it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that drastic changes in the Great Lakes’ food chain over the last few decades due to invasive species means “trends for the food web are murky.” That’s researcher-speak for “We have no goddamn idea what’s going on right now, much less 5, 10, or 20 years from now. We can count quagga mussels and quantify the 80 percent loss of the phytoplankton at the base of the food chain. But please, for the love of God don’t ask us to predict what’s next.”

It’s a crap shoot, this business of hauling in exotic creatures from foreign lands in the ballast water of international freighters and releasing them into the world’s greatest freshwater ecosystem. There are almost 200 invaders, according to the latest count.

It’s a giant, uncontrolled, uncontrollable biology experiment in which random creatures are thrown into the Great Lakes without the slightest clue to their impact. Then we stand back and see what happens next. And our best hope is that the result is just sucky, and not catastrophic.

We could ban oceangoing ships from the Great Lakes – which accounts for an estimated 75 percent of the invasive species arrivals. It would even create new jobs and stimulate economic activity. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

In the meantime, we’ll just stand back and see what happens. Not much of a management plan.
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Michigan House of Representatives mulls moratorium for roadside Television on a Stick

2010-09-29T20:36:00.001-04:00

Update:

OK, so maybe this billboard's not in Michigan. So what?

Legislation to put, effectively, a one-year moratorium on the construction of brightly lit digital billboards in Michigan has cleared a State House of Representatives committee, but is stalled on the House floor as supporters try to rally the 56 votes needed for passage.

In the meantime, the City of Walker – outside of Grand Rapids – has chosen a prudent course. They’ve put their own six month halt on the monstrosities to try and get out from under an avalanche of industry requests for digitals. Industry wants to get the requests in under the wire in case the legislation goes through.

More cities are banning or slowing the spread of the digital distractions.

If I had my way, we’d go the route of Maine, Hawaii and some other state I can’t remember that have banned billboards altogether.

That idea raises the hackles of lobbyists for out-of-state billboard companies who are crawling all over the State Capitol in Lansing as we speak to ensure Michigan’s legislation dies.

It also raises the hackles of well-meaning libertarians and right wingers and others who see a ban as an infringement on the rights of billboard companies and advertisers. I could make some very reasonable, well thought out arguments why our rights to see the landscape should trump their right to clutter it up. But I don’t feel like being reasonable.

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Breaking Good News: Michigan House passes phosphorus fertilizer restrictions

2010-09-23T14:55:00.005-04:00

The Michigan House of Representatives this morning passed a bill restricting phosphorus in lawn fertilizer. The legislation, if approved by the Senate and Gov. Granholm, would be a significant step in protecting our lakes and ponds from runaway algae growth and oxygen depletion.

Progress on the fertilizer legislation is encouraging. In terms of reducing nutrient pollution to our waters, it’s a much bigger deal than the ban on phosphorus in dishwasher detergent that took effect in Michigan this summer.

Whacko environmentalists are a much easier target than genetics when it comes to blame for bedbugs

2010-09-21T16:19:00.000-04:00

I bite. And I'm a powerful political tool!

Sending this off to one of my local papers today:

The Oakland Press’ Sept. 21 story ”Bedbugs’ Big Comeback”

did an admirable job of alerting the public.

Unfortunately, it repeated the discredited but potent falsehood that the ban on dangerously toxic chemical DDT is a reason for the comeback of the nasty little bugs.

DDT was wildly successful in eliminating bedbugs in the 1940s. A few – those genetically predisposed to be resistant to DDT’s poisoning – survived. They bred, producing even more resistant offspring. By the 1970s DDT was largely ineffective against bedbugs and remains so to this day.

As Newsweek Magazine reported

(Sept. 8, 2010 issue) tests of pesticide effectiveness against bedbugs during the last two years at Cornell University ranked DDT dead last. “You almost have to spray directly on the bug to do anything to him,” it quoted a Virginia Tech entomologist as saying “Or hit him with the can.”

Why is this myth – that if only the environmental wackos had not banned DDT we’d be safe from bedbugs – persisted? It is the product of an ideologically-driven minority that seeks political and public policy victories regardless of the cost to public health, our natural resources or scientific honesty.

Fact checkers – both at newspapers and at their home computers – should not be giving legitimacy to utter falsehoods like this one.

Hugh McDiarmid Jr.

Farmington

U.S. House committee findings: Sixteen hundred miles away, Enbridge Energy technicians scratched their heads for 18 hours

2010-09-16T12:35:00.000-04:00

Enbridge restarted the pipeline twice before finally shutting it.

There was a leak in the gas line to our clothes dryer last year. We called Consumers Energy Co.

Their truck was there within minutes. The guy’s Deteco-machine found gas in the house and within minutes another truck with two guys and a gal screeched up and began unloading gear like a Marine Corps assault team.

The dug holes, took out ceiling tiles and combed every nook and cranny in the place. At one point they were suggesting that a backhoe might be called shortly to claw around our foundation in a frenzied treasure hunt.

Thankfully, they found the problem and shut it off. Then they noticed our outdoor gas meter was outdated. In a few minutes they’d torn off the old one and installed a new one – a procedure that involved an awesomely deafening few seconds of high-pressure gas blasting out of the pipe as he swapped meters. Think jet engine. And no smoking. Then they were gone with dark warning of what might become of us if I turned that gas line back on before getting it repaired.

It was professional, efficient, and fast – and I remain impressed to this day with how seriously these folks took their jobs when safety was at issue.

How is it then, that when the alarms detected Enbridge Energy Co.’s oil leak in Marshall, that it took technicians monitoring the problem 1,600 miles away in Alberta, Canada 18 hours to shut valves?
That and other vexing issues are raised in a U.S. House committee report reconstructing the timeline of the oil spill. The Free Press’ Todd Spangler wrote this excellent account.

Folks who want to keep abreast of the latest on the Enbridge Oil spill have numerous places to do so…..one reason why I haven’t written more about it, others are doing it much better than I could.

But this committee report needs noting. It paints a picture of a company inexcusably out of touch with the infrastructure of its pipeline system – 1,600 miles away – infrastructure critical to maintaining the safety of Michiganders.

By the time one 911 caller told an operator that “the entire downtown smells like gas” Enbridge was still pumping oil into the water and scratching their heads. Or some other part of their anatomy.

A libertarian-minded friend told me, he hopes the disaster will be a wake up call to other companies to make sure their safety protocols are as close to infallible as humanly possible.

I hope so too. But wouldn’t mind our regulators kicking the backsides of violators too.
###

This Mother of all Engineering Reversals might help out our Great Lakes

2010-09-13T15:08:00.001-04:00

Chicago River dyed green for St. Paddy's Day

Once upon a time in Chicago, human waste was piped directly into the Chicago River, which sluggishly moved the shit out into Lake Michigan. There it sat, stinking and rotting in the harbor and wrecking the city and contaminating its drinking water supply and killing people with typhoid fever and cholera. That really sucked.

So around the turn of the last century those cunning Chicagoans devised a plan to save the harbor from human feces.

Ah…you’re probably thinking “stop spewing toilet water into the river, I mean, what the hell were we thinking in the first place?” Wrong.

"Drink like raging alcoholics from morning 'till dusk and pour green dye in the river on St. Patrick's Day"? Wrong again.

No, those clever folks re-engineered the entire river system so that the Chicago River now flows OUT of Lake Michigan instead of IN to the lake. All the feces now floats away from the lake, and issues with stinking human sewage are someone else’s problem. Not Chicago’s.

Well, as you might expect, tinkering with Mother Nature leads to unintended consequences. Connecting the river to the Gulf of Mexico-bound Mississippi River has provided a superhighway for invasive species. Wetlands and other natural features have been altered in myriad ways. And of course the Great Lakes is now losing, rather than gaining, water from the Chicago River – a significant issue in an era where global warming and poor water use practices threaten to permanently lower lake levels.

So when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he wants to restore the natural flow of the river it is a very interesting proposition. It would be a huge engineering feat, a great expense and would need to overcome numerous political hurdles over the next couple decades. But why not?

##

Back from the Upper Peninsua. Beats Toledo, suckers!

2010-09-11T23:51:00.000-04:00

Back from vacation in Michigan's splendid Upper Peninsula! And we got the U.P. for Toledo?

Nice trade, Buckeyes!

(Photo: My in-laws' dock on a U.P. lake with lots of fish that's for me to know about, but not you ;)

Governor wannabes get sized up, called to account on nonprofit environmental group's web tracker

2010-09-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

Snyder

Bernero

Electing public servants who will fight for policies to protect our natural resources is perhaps the most important way we can help make Michigan cleaner, safer and better positioned for the future.

But picking the diamonds from a rough Election Day ballot clogged with stooges, robotic party hacks and self-aggrandizing narcissists takes some work.

So it’s nice that the Michigan League of Conservation Voters has made it easier to size up the candidates for governor this year with its candidate tracker website.

The group is keeping score. Monitoring promises made and positions staked out by both Democrat Virg Bernero and Republican Rick Snyder.

Comparison charts, recent statement by the candidates and other helpful information is available. After the election, the organization will hold the winner accountable to practice what they preached during the campaign.

###

Straits of Mackinac at risk? Enbridge wants to send divers down to shore up "unsupported" sections of underwater oil pipeline near Mackinac Bridge

2010-09-01T08:28:00.003-04:00

So this is fascinating. Enbridge Energy, whose oil spill fouled the Kalamazoo River system, wants to drill ten or more “support structures” underneath the waters of the Straits of Mackinac to make its twin 20-inch oil pipelines there safer.

In this application to the state, they suggest that the “do nothing” option “presents a future risk to the pipeline.”
One wonders why this safety measure, to “minimize the distance between presently unsupported pipeline spans” wasn’t on the drawing board three months ago. Or three years ago. Or ten years ago. Or when the pipeline was built in the first place (which appears to be the 1950s.)

And one wonders how many other oil pipelines across the country may be in need of additional safety maintenance, but aren’t getting it because their owners aren’t as gun shy as the beleaguered crew at Enbridge.

Thursday update: Numerous media outlets have picked up this story, including this morning’s article in the Detroit Free Press this morning’s article in the Detroit Free Press. Enbridge says the work was planned prior to the Kalamazoo spill. And not to worry, everything is under control.

Save the planet! Ask for directions dudes!

2010-08-31T14:15:00.000-04:00

Relax Kate. I'm sure Sawyer knows exactly where you are

A British insurance company with a bizarre pink website has discovered an easy way for men to reduce pollution and save gas: Ask for directions, jerk!

The company commissioned a study
showing that men blunder around lost for 276 miles each year in part because they refuse to ask for directions. Women, by comparison, are quicker to seek help and drive only 256 miles lost each year.

In fact, 41 percent of men have pretended they know where they’re going when they’re lost; and 12 percent refuse to ask for directions at all. Almost half the men said even when they ask, they don’t trust the directions.

The company suggests that we can all save money and gas and the planet by planning our trips better and not being so arrogant and proud.

That’s probably good advice. But I feel unqualified to offer an opinion, having never experienced this particular problem.

###

Taxpayer subsidies? I got your subsidies right here pal! (And why aren't my free market friends raising hell about this?)

2010-08-30T07:23:00.000-04:00

One of the most persistent criticisms of efforts to stimulate clean energy jobs (wind, solar, etc.) is that it requires taxpayer funded government subsidies.

As Russ Harding of the Midland, MI-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy says in
a 2009 column “if the answer is yes (that they require subsidies), the end economic results are more likely negative rather than positive.”

The critics never acknowledge that the status quo is laden with huge subsidies for the coal, nuclear and oil that currently make up the bulk of our fuels.

Now we have some idea how much those subsidies are. And they’re huge.

The Environmental Law Institute has published a report, Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources, 2002-2008. The findings: Subsidies to fossil fuels “totaled approximately $72 billion over the study period, representing a direct cost to taxpayers.”

Most of the fossil fuel subsidies were permanent alterations to the tax code. The largest, $15 billion, was the Foreign Tax Credit – a direct incentive for U.S. companies to invest in energy production outside the U.S. instead of in homegrown fuels made by Americans.

By comparison, most of the $29 billion in renewable energy subsidies were time-limited – a huge barrier to investors who are understandably unwilling to invest in industries that may get their tax breaks yanked at the whim of the next Congress.

So this raises two key questions:
1) As a country supposedly unified in increasing our energy independence and moving away from dangerous, unhealthy fossil fuels, why are we subsidizing the fuels we don’t want, rather than the ones we do?
2) Why aren’t so-called “free market” proponents like the Mackinac Center raising more – or any – hell about the tax breaks for fossil fuels? (Hint: Some of these organizations have funders with names like Exxon Mobil)

If we’re going to subsidize energy production, let’s subsidize clean, renewable, American-made energy. If we’re going to be purist “free market” proponents, let’s work to eliminate all energy subidies – and it makes sense to start with the biggest ones: Fossil fuels.

Anytime someone says clean American energy shouldn’t have to get subsidies to compete, they need to answer these questions. Every. Single. Time.
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Weeks-long China traffic jam puts Michigan's construction season tie-ups to shame

2010-08-24T22:26:00.003-04:00

In China, a 62-mile long traffic jam is entering its 10th day. Hopefully, this will get the attention of the Michigan Department of Transportation. Despite steadfast efforts this summer, MDOT – like the rest of the country – is falling behind the Chinese.

Michigan’s summer traffic tie-ups are legendary, but the Chinese traffic jam is now the gold standard and the envy of all developed nations.

It’s not that our elected officials aren’t trying. From the advent of the Model T, Michigan has steadfastly resisted investing money in public transportation options that might reduce road congestion; squabbled over who might control hypothetical regional transportation authorities; and created cities and suburbs that require personal vehicles to get to jobs and shopping centers.

But it’s not nearly enough, as China’s latest world-leading achievement proves. So we need to try harder.

We can start by getting rid of these do-gooders, Michigan by Rail, who are hosting more than a dozen public forums this summer and fall on the future of rail transportation in Michigan.

Whatever you do, please do not encourage them by checking their web site, finding an upcoming forum near you and giving them your input, which in turn will be given to MDOT and federal planners as they try and improve public transit options. And by all means, don’t let your elected officials know that you support public transit as a convenient alternative to building more and bigger roads.

If we want to catch up with China, we’ve got a lot of work to do.
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Why doe-eyed liberals aren't responsible for that extra-looking renewable energy surcharge

2010-08-24T06:34:00.002-04:00

My DTE Energy electric bill has a separately delineated $3 charge for “renewable energy plan surcharge.”

But, tellingly, there is no similar line item for coal purchases, coal plant operation, or capital costs of coal plants. Nor is there any breakout for nuclear power. None of this, despite the fact that coal and nuclear account for 85 percent of electricity generated in Michigan.

So why is there a separate line item explaining $3 worth of my bill, but no clues as to what the remaining $65.51 goes to?

When Michigan passed its renewable energy standard in 2008 (requiring utilities to provide 10 percent from clean energy sources by 2015), the utilities and their friends in the legislature wanted to make it perfectly clear that the $3 increase was the fault of those idyllic tree huggers and their insistence on building windmills and solar panels and such. Renewable energy advocates lost their bid to simply fold the rate increase into the rest of the bill.

The renewable line item perpetuates the myth that power from nonpolluting sources is somehow an expensive, boutique hobby horse of weepy, doe-eyed, seitan eaters from Ann Arbor.

And it’s bull. When our rates go up because the price of coal rises, that increase is tucked right into the bill without any separate explanation.

In Michigan, we’ve made progress to a more sensible future. We’ve got a modest amount of renewable energy on the way, and have scuttled a number of ill-advised coal plants. But the Old Guard is not retreating without mining the bridges behind them. And the renewable energy surcharge is one of those land mines.

When it comes time to improve Michigan’s anemic renewable energy standard, it will be more difficult because of the visibility of the $3 surcharge. The response from ratepayers may well be just what the mine layers intended in 2008: “WTF? We’re already paying $3 extra on our bill!”

Kaboom!
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