Michigan Environmental Council

Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Rebecca Humphries announced yesterday that she is resigning from her position in state government to work as director of the Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office of Ducks Unlimited in Ann Arbor.
“This opportunity will allow me to continue my career in conservation,” Humphries told DNRE staff yesterday in a […]

The Michigan Environmental Council has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to look into the states financially challenged air quality program which they say is leaving polluters unmonitored and putting residents’ health at risk.

Last month the Obama administration announced $8 billion in competitive grants for high speed rail, and though Michigan’s Department of Transportation had compiled about $1 billion in requests, the state ended up getting just $40 million to upgrade three rail stations.
In an editorial in today’s Detroit Free Press Tim Fischer, deputy policy director for the […]

State environmental groups are urging Michigan House lawmakers to reject a Senate bill that would make it easier for electric utilities to develop coal plants.

Although some areas of the 2010 state budget remain under negotiation, both chambers of the Legislature have approved a 39 percent cut in general fund support for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, a move that will scale back environmental enforcement in the Great Lake State.

“If the state doesn’t have resources to establish programs to use federal funds or provide matching funds, Michigan is going to watch those funds go elsewhere,” said Noah Hall of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “The federal government doesn’t want to give money if the state hasn’t shown it will value the program.”

Consumers Energy and Wolverine Power have failed to demonstrate a need for the coal-fired power plants they propose to build in Bay City and Rogers City, the Michigan Public Service Commission said in a report issued Tuesday. Unless it retires some of its existing fleet of power plants, which is not an explicit part of it’s proposal, Consumers Energy won’t need any additional generating capacity until 2020 the Public Service Commission found.

LANSING — Facing shortfalls in the budget for summer road maintenance, the Michigan Department of Transportation is experimenting this year with spraying growth retardant chemicals along state-controlled highways in the hopes of reducing the need to mow roadside vegetation. But the little-known pilot project has raised concerns about potential groundwater contamination and possible health effects.

KALAMAZOO — Be patient: That’s the message from federal environmental regulators to advocates and stakeholders pressing for the cleanup of hundreds of thousands of pounds of sediment and soil in the Kalamazoo River contaminated with harmful polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a remnant of the papermaking industry that flourished along the river for most of the 20th century.

A bill that would require power companies to get at least 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources like wind power by 2015 received bipartisan approval by the Michigan House Committee on Energy and Technology on Wednesday.

Environmentalists said the measure would save ratepayers money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help Michigan compete for clean-energy […]