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 municipally owned utility company has hired a firm to study the potential health impacts of a proposed $30 million wood-fired power plant. “We’ve been hearing from a lot of other people, what they think the public health aspects would be,” [Karen Feahrs of Traverse City Light and Power told Interlochen Public Radio,]“And we [...]
Last year the state of Massachusetts suspended licenses for new wood-burning power plants and commissioned a study on the environmental impacts of burning wood for electricity. That study, conducted by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, has now been released and it shows that, per unit, wood releases more climate-damaging gases than coal. Ian Bowles, [...]
Biomass burning facilities will not be exempt from greenhouse gas permitting rules when the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency begins regulating carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act next year. Greenwire reports that EPA announced yesterday that it lacked a sufficient basis to exempt carbon dioxide from biogenic sources but that it would explore the [...]
After months of public hearings and intense debate Traverse City’s municipal utility decided to move ahead with plans to develop a wood-burning power plant, but plans for the new facility hit a serious hurdle this week when Traverse Light & Power learned that the plant could not be built at the utility’s preferred location because [...]
Despite growing public concern about its effect on the health of people and state forests, Traverse City Light & Power is moving forward with plans to build a wood-fired power plant.
Traverse City Light & Power, the public utility that supplies power to that area, sent out a press release this morning about a public survey they apparently commissioned from the Northwest Michigan College Research Services department. You can read the full survey here (PDF). The survey was about what customers of the company valued most [...]
In response to community opposition to plans to build wood-fired power plants in Traverse City the municipally owned power company held a series of forums last month to gather public input on how best to generate power. Traverse City Light and Power promised to analyze and publicly respond to community concerns before settling on a [...]
A northern Michigan entrepreneur plans to develop an operation in Manistee that will turn trees from the surrounding forests into pellets that could fuel power plants such as the wood-fired biomass plants planned in Mancelona and Traverse City, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports. Jerry Dutcher, owner of Fireglow Wood Pellets, intends to locate a new [...]
Traverse City’s municipal utility company is looking to increase its use of renewable sources of energy, but residents and experts question whether the use of biomass as an energy source is necessary or worth the negative effects that come with it.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has issued an air permit for a 36 megawatt wood-fired power plant proposed in Mancelona by Mancelona Renewable Resources, a subsidiary of the natural gas and oil company Jordan Exploration. According to figures from the DNRE the Mancelona plant will release more particulate, more volatile organic compounds [...]
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