Manchin moves: Climate advocates are perhaps allowing themselves to feel some small bit of hope after Senate Democrats announced a $369 billion dollar climate and tax package that would provide tax incentives for wind, solar and other renewable power sources as well as tax credits for electric vehicles. This is a significant reversal for Sen. Joe Manchin who had previously […]
Posted inAccountability
Detroit activists deliver demand for public hearing to Michigan Public Service Commissioners in song
During its first-ever regular business meeting held outside Lansing, Michigan Public Service Commissioners received a Detroit-style welcome – and a question – from gospel singer Corzetta Booze. During the public comment section of the Wednesday meeting, citizens voiced their opinions on an array of energy-related topics, including the Enbridge Line 5 gas tunnel, solar energy […]
Posted inVoices
OPINION | The fight is not over: On Manchin and exhaustion
To meet the challenges of the global climate crisis, we need bold ideas and to speak truth to power. That’s the idea behind Climate/Justice, a Planet Detroit opinion column written by Detroit-based environmental justice activist Michelle Martinez. Martinez writes not only as an activist but as a mother and fourth-generation Detroiter. Martinez will be donating […]
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Michigan's monarchs are hard to find
CO2 2022/2021 : 418.43 ppm / 416.08 ppm Dear Michigan Climate News readers, In this week's news, transmission lines in the midwest will get a new investment to enable more renewable energy connections and increase reliability. The news is not good for Monarch butterflies. And hot weather = a fire alert in the Thumb. Read […]
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Ann Arbor's net-zero neighborhood breaks ground
This is part in an ongoing series about Michiganders working toward climate solutions. Know someone we should write about? Hit reply! SUBSCRIBE TO MICHIGAN CLIMATE NEWS! Construction recently began in Ann Arbor on a new solar-powered, all-electric, sustainable housing development. The ecovillage, planned to open in 2023, will host a local food grocery store, a […]
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From the Headlines- July 18 – 22
Climate emergency: On Thursday, 100 million people in the Lower 48 were under heat alerts, and 60 million Americans in 16 states were experiencing temperatures of 100 degrees or higher. A “heat dome” or ridge of high pressure had settled over the Southwest but also drifted to the Mid-Atlantic, locking in high temperatures for days. Luckily, Michigan has been spared […]
Posted inCommunity
OPINION: Moving beyond coal in Michigan, despite W. Va vs. EPA SCOTUS decision
Last month, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to EPA’s ability to fight climate change, holding in West Virginia v. EPA that the agency may not use its most effective tool under the federal Clean Air Act to reduce climate-disrupting carbon pollution from the electric power sector. But as damaging and backward as this […]
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Will climate change make Michigan the next Sonoma Valley?
CO2 2022/2021 : 418.82 ppm / 418.87 ppm Dear Michigan Climate News readers, This week, hope for climate action seemed to slip away as much of the globe and parts of Michigan grapple with a heat wave. In good news? Michigan may become a refuge for wine growers. This month's policy tracker takes a look […]
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Policy Tracker: Michigan taxpayer-funded methane infrastructure & tax credits for ethanol sales?
SUBSCRIBE TO MICHIGAN CLIMATE NEWS! Dear Michigan Climate News readers, This edition of our monthly policy tracker explores bills to promote ethanol and a funding measure to promote methane gas infrastructure. These updates follow the European Parliament's designation of natural gas as a "green fuel" for investment purposes and begs the question: Is gas green? […]
Posted inAccountability
GLWA denies all flood claims from 2021; lawsuits will continue
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) announced Tuesday it would deny claims filed by more than 24,000 water and sewer customers related to the June 2021 basement flooding that impacted thousands of homes across Metro Detroit. GLWA, which provides water and sewer service to the Detroit region, said in a statement that it would begin […]