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.
US carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas fell 6.3 percent in 2009 and are expected to increase by just 1.5 percent this year, Bloomberg reports in a story on the latest forecast by the Energy Information Administration.
President Barack Obama’s administration has told the United Nations that the U.S. is prepared to cut its emissions roughly 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Last year’s drop in emissions, the result of the weak economy, cut carbon dioxide more than half as much as needed to meet the 2020 goal.
In 2009, carbon dioxide emissions were 5.44 billion metric tons, or 8.8 percent below the 2005 level of 5.96 billion, the EIA said today. After a recession that began in December 2007, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter of last year and at 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter as factories ramped up production to rebuild depleted inventories.
Michigan’s industrial decline has reduced the state’s CO2 emissions, but the heavy reliance on coal for electricity means the state is still a major contributor to the nation’s CO2 output.
In 2008 Michigan’s electric utilities ranked 12th in terms of amount of CO2 emitted.
Here in Michigan the slower economy also helped reduce solid waste in 2009.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment:
Waste disposed of by Michigan residents and businesses decreased by 5,284,953 cubic yards, about 13 percent, to 34,751,326 cubic yards, and waste imported from other states and Canada also decreased this fiscal year by 4,119,906 cubic yards, approximately 24 percent, to 13,086,354 cubic yards. Imported waste made up 27 percent of all waste disposed of in Michigan, down from 30 percent the prior year.
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