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.
A new bill has been submitted in the U.S. Congress that would extend tax breaks for the purchase of vehicles powered by natural gas rather than gasoline and provide tax breaks for the manufacture of those vehicles as well. Automotive News reports:
U.S. lawmakers today unveiled legislation aimed at helping the nation wean itself off foreign oil by providing financial incentives for the use of vehicles fueled by natural gas.
Sponsored by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, the bill would extend for 10 years tax credits for purchasing vehicles that run on natural gas and installing natural gas refueling stations.
“We saw last summer how the wild fluctuations in oil prices helped to wreck our economy, and we’ve seen how pollutants from dirty fuels are wrecking our planet,” Menendez said at a press conference.
The bill also has the support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and prominent Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. Natural gas vehicles, or NGVs, use compressed natural gas rather than liquid gasoline. The engines are standard internal combustion engines, they just use a different type of fuel. You can retrofit the engine in most cars and trucks to use natural gas, but it’s fairly expensive to do.
Natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline and releases about 25% less CO2. It’s also typically cheaper than gasoline for the same amount of driving; a gallon-equivalent of compressed natural gas is currently selling for about $1.95. The problem is availability. There are only a handful of natural gas filling stations in Michigan compared to thousands of regular gas stations.
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