I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Lansing mired in disagreement over baby steps toward renewable energy
The Michigan House has rejected a Senate bill that Anne Woiwode of the Michigan Sierra Club called the “worst energy legislation passed by any house in any state in the country.” It would have set a very low requirement of only 7 percent renewable energy usage.
The House voted against it, 86-21, and took steps to raise the requirement to 10 percent.
In effect the House is trying to reinstate its original version of an energy package that has bounced back and forth between the two chambers.
Back in April the Democrat-led House passed an energy bill package that called for 10 percent of the state’s electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2015.
Then, in a late night session before the 4th of July holiday weekend, the Republican-controlled Senate amended the House bill to require only 7 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources or from what the Senate bill called “cleaner technologies” — which would actually include a type of coal-fired power plant.
Now the House has rejected that Senate version.
Continued -Democratic Rep. Frank Accavetti Jr. sponsored one of today’s House amendments to the Senate bill.
Accavetti spokesman Tim Sneller said that though he doesn’t have the exact language of the bill, he believes that today`s House action “changes the bill back to the House version, strips out all the language added by the Senate.”
Once again the package is headed for the Senate, and once again it seems headed for defeat.
Sneller said that he expects the Senate to reject the House bill Thursday and that a compromise will be negotiated by a conference committee after the House returns to session on Aug. 13.
“We strengthened the Senate’s plan,” said Greg Bird, spokesman for House Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat. “We believe [renewables need] to be at least 10 percent, and that will allow us to be very aggressive in growing the renewable energy industry here in Michigan.”
Twenty-four states have already passed renewable energy standards, and critics say even the strengthened Michigan House goal of 10 percent is weak. California is currently on track to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has called for a nationwide standard of 25 percent renewable by 2025. In a speech last week former Vice President Al Gore called for 100 percent renewable-sourced electricity by 2018.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter