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.
The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club is urging people to e-mail the legislators who have scheduled a 3:55 a.m. (Saturday morning) conference committee meeting on a bill that would ease permit requirements for coal-fired power plants.
Rep. Darwin Booher (R-Evart) , Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock), Rep. Andy Coulouris(D-Saginaw), Sen. Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau), Sen. Judson Gilbert (R-Algonac) and Sen. Raymond Bashman (D-Taylor) are the legislators slated to participate in the pre-dawn meeting.
In a memo today the Michigan Environmental Council called the legislation a “bizarre assault on ratepayers and good public policy” and urged legislators to reject it.
In a e-mail alert tonight, Michigan Sierra Club director, Anne Woiwode, urged people to contact lawmakers.
You can point out that the language in the Senate passed version of HB 5220 does the following:
- Violates the Clean Air Act by prohibiting the DEQ from considering YOUR comments on need and alternatives to coal plants
- That it violates Michigan’s own Environmental Protection Act by preventing consideration of alternatives to coal plants
- That it leaves open the door to you as a ratepayer being forced under state laws passed last year to pay huge increases in rates for coal plants that are unneeded and for which cheaper, cleaner and better job producing alternatives exist
- That this puts Michigan squarely back in the middle of the LAST century, putting a big red bow on this Christmas gift to the Coal Industry (We’re Blowing Up Mountains So We Can Keep Polluting the Planet!), and the power companies that are trying to keep Michigan in the energy dark ages by building 19th Century coal plants.
Conference committee chair Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock), reached by phone at 10:35 pm, expressed confidence that the lawmakers will be able to stay awake until the 3:55 am meeting.
Lahti declined to share his opinion on whether the Senate bill violates the Clean Air Act.
“We are here,” he said. “We are continuing to look at it.”
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