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.
Michigan’s Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are part of a new push to dilute the climate change bills that are moving through Congress, my colleague Mike Lillis at The Washington Independent reports.
Last week Levin and Stabenow joined a dozen other Senate Democrats in asking their party leaders to rewrite the Senate climate bill so that it will cost coal-using industries less.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics coal dependent electric utilities are among the top donors for Michigan’s Senate delegation. In the 2010 campaign cycle PACs and individuals associated with DTE Energy gave $28,000 to Levin, ranking as his 9th largest donor while Consumers Energy ranked 14th with $22,300 in contributions. DTE Energy gave $31,400 to Stabenow and was her 8th largest contributor.
According to Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones, the senators are concerned that the current cap and trade bill will have a disproportionate affect on coal burning utilities.
In particular, the senators oppose the way that carbon credits are allocated in the House and the proposed Senate bill, arguing that it unfairly harms states who rely on coal for their energy needs. Their concern is that the House bill and the Senate bill that advanced last week would make higher-emitting utilities—those that burn coal—pay more under cap and trade. Under the House and Senate proposals, the formula by which local electricity distributors receive free credits is based 50 percent on their total energy sales and 50 percent on their total emissions. The coal state senators want the allocations to be based 100 percent on emissions—meaning that utilities that emit more would get more free credits.
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