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.
Traverse City’s municipal utility has decided to step away from plans to build a wood-fired power plant as part of an effort to reach a goal of 30 percent renewable energy by 2020. Traverse City Light & Power executive director Ed Rice said that the TCLP board has decided to “curtail any detailed analysis” of biomass options and instead explore meeting the city’s power needs with natural gas. He cited community opposition to biomass power and lowered costs for natural gas as the main reasons for tabling the plan.
“As a public utility we need to be connected to the citizens,” Rice said. “We tried public forums, open meetings, more public forums. We somehow could not connect to the overall community on biomass.”
Since December opponents of the proposed biomass plant have insisted that burning wood for power will damage the region’s forests and contribute to air pollution, and recently the local effort against biomass has been bolstered by some national developments.
In May the U.S. EPA ruled that emissions from biomass plants would not be exempt from greenhouse gas permitting rules when the agency begins regulating carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act next year.
This month the state of Massachusetts announced it would reconsider renewable energy incentives for biomass after a study it commissioned showed wood-burning releases more greenhouse gases than coal.
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