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.
Officials at Michigan State University have stated that it’s not economically feasible for the school to switch from coal power to natural gas. A new report from Deutsche Bank AG, however, predicts that continued low natural gas prices will lead many power companies to give up coal. The report anticipates a more than 50 percent [...]
This weeks auction of more than a quarter million acres of mineral rights by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) shows that Michigan is moving toward increased natural gas development on public land. Pennsylvania, in contrast, has banned new gas well development on state forest land.
Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on Monday night to discuss the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, a method of getting natural gas out of shale deposits that is set to be used beneath hundreds of thousands of acres of public and private land in Michigan. It includes dramatic [...]
Stateline.org has the second part of their series on the use of hydraulic fracturing to get at natural gas deposits up on their site. One key section in the article:
A new study by a Paonia, Colo.-based doctor who’s a frequent critic of the state’s natural gas industry, has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. “Natural Gas Operations From a Public Health Perspective [pdf],” co-authored by Paonia’s Dr. Theo Colborn, who runs the Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TDEX) [...]
New rules are going into effect in the state of Wyoming that will require, for the first time, companies that use hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, to mine for natural gas to disclose the chemicals used in that process. ProPublica reports:
Natural gas explosions resulted in 10 deaths and 59 injuries last year. But the federal oversight agency responsible for natural gas lines does not oversee millions of miles of them.
Jim Olson, an environmental attorney and acting chair of the Flow for Water Coalition, has an op-ed piece in the Detroit Free Press about the dangers of allowing energy companies to use hydrofracking to mine for natural gas in northern Michigan. Drawing a parallel with the recent oil spill in Calhoun County, Olson writes:
Increasingly, Michigan utilities are looking to replace coal fired power plants with natural gas, but new research commissioned by the American Public Power Association indicates that if the whole country tried to switch to natural gas the costs for new infrastructure could be enormous. The report also questioned whether environmental regulation of deep shale hydrofracking [...]
A new round of natural gas exploration in Northern Michigan, sparked by the development of a controversial new drilling technique that has yielded good results for the Encana corporation, is prompting serious concerns about potential damage to ground and surface waters.
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