Yesterday the Trump administration put out a press release titled “President Donald J. Trump Unleashes America’s Energy Potential”. In it, the release describes how Trump has done this: Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord Rescinding the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan Fast-tracking approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline Ending the Obama Administration’s coal leasing moratorium on Federal land Rescinding the […]

One small section of a 798-page bill titled the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017” was clearly written by lobbyists for the forest products industry. Buried on page 366 is this statement: To support the key role that forests in the United States can play in addressing the energy needs of the United States, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Agriculture, […]

Earlier this year, the group Clean Energy Now created a website that allows Michigan energy consumers to choose the sources for their energy needs and to compare those choices to what they have now. The new site, PicMyEnergyMix.com, is interactive, allowing the user to make choices about the mix of sources that power their lives. When you have completed the […]

Michigan Republicans have long been known for as being ultra-friendly to our major utility companies. The most recent evidence of that comes from legislation that will end what’s known as “net metering”. With net metering, homeowners who install solar installations that produce more energy than they use can send the bonus electricity back to the grid and receive a credit […]

This past week the Obama administration announced sweeping new regulations that will reduce carbon emissions from our nation’s power plants by 32 percent by 2030. “With this Clean Power Plan, by 2030, carbon pollution from our power plants will be 32 percent lower than it was a decade ago,” President Obama said when he announced the new plan. “The nerdier […]

Since today is Earth Day, I thought it would be a great opportunity to hear from a group that does more than most others in terms of protecting our planet from further damage by human activity. Clean Water Action is on the forefront of this and their organization is a model for how to organize and create change one doorstep […]

If you’ve ever spent time at Michigan State University, it’s hard to miss the twin smokestacks of the T.B. Simon Power Plant on the south side of campus. And it’s also hard to miss the gigantic piles of coal next to the plant or the hundreds of coal-carrying train cars that feed the maw of the behemoth. Starting in 2016, […]

If you listen to DTE Energy and Consumers Energy tell the story, Michigan is perched on the precipice of an impending energy crisis of epic proportions. New ads running television – over 400 in the past two months – tell us that, thanks to federal regulations, many of our coal-fired power plants will be shut down. The result, they suggest, […]

Last December, Aric Nesbitt, a proud Republican member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), introduced a bill, H.B. 5205 that went largely unnoticed. The bill would reclassify petroleum coke (“petcoke”) and solid waste as a “renewable energy resource”, eligible for renewable energy tax credits. Yes, you’re right to gasp. Earlier this month, Executive Director for the Michigan League of […]

This guest post was written by Sue Browne, Regional Program Manager for the BlueGreen Alliance. On Tuesday at the Michigan AFL-CIO offices in Lansing, labor and environmental leaders called on Governor Snyder and state and local lawmakers to take the lead in crafting a flexible state plan to help Michigan meet its emissions reduction targets, as laid out in EPA’s […]

Last October, I wrote about an exciting new project in Detroit called the Veterans Green Village to bring green energy projects to the city and put military veterans to work. I have stayed in contact with Gordon Soderberg (pictured right) who heads up the project. His group has teamed up with the Motor City Blight Busters of Detroit to create […]