Rate hike: The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) will increase wholesale water rates 3.7% and sewer rates 2.4% in July, triggering rate hikes in the 88 communities it serves across Metro Detroit. Similar hikes are planned for the following year, and GLWA projections show a need for 3% hikes for the fiscal years of 2025 to 2027. “If […]
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Biden funding infusion launches decades overdue clean up of toxic Detroit River
EPA targets 2030 cleanup; advocates say that’s ‘ambitious’ Has the time finally come to clean up the toxic sediment in the Detroit River that remains as legacy pollutants from the peak industrial era? That’s approximately 3.5 million cubic yards of sediment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A successful cleanup could lead to the […]
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How can Detroit’s community gardeners avoid losing their investment in land they don’t own?
Solutions for securing rights to vacant lots stewarded by residents may include community land trusts, purchase programs This story is published in partnership with Outlier Media. Last summer, Sherrie Smith was confused and upset when she received an email saying the garden she’d been tending for three years would be destroyed. She had started growing […]
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Auburn Hills votes to opt out of SMART bus service
For the past two years, Christina Cowart has relied on the bus to get to and from her retail job selling baby clothes at the Great Lakes Crossing mall in Auburn Hills. The Pontiac resident takes the bus from the Phoenix Center to a bus stop on Baldwin on the west side of the massive […]
Posted inSolutions
Projects aim to stop flooding of homes, businesses
By JADA PENNCapital News Service LANSING — The Great Lakes Water Authority plans to increase the ability of its water and wastewater systems to cope with flooding and other severe weather conditions under a capital improvement plan to be carried out over five years, according to its media representative, Molly Young. The investment will consist […]
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Enbridge pipeline loss would be 'unnoticed', new pipeline would cost $41 billion in climate damage, advocates say
CO2 2022/2021 418.76 ppm / 416.46 ppm https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2 Did you have a chance to take our Michigan Climate News Reader Survey? We want to hear from you! What topics are you counting on Michigan Climate news to cover in 2022? TAKE OUR READER SURVEY HERE! Modest impacts: Enbridge Energy has argued that a shutdown of […]
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Can Michigan become carbon neutral without embracing carbon offsets?
TAKE OUR READER SURVEY! Read part one here for an explainer on carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality emerged from COP 26 as one of the key strategies for mitigating global climate change, and President Biden’s climate plan aims for the entire United States to be carbon neutral by 2050. And it was a crucial part of […]
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What is carbon neutrality?
TAKE OUR READER SURVEY HERE! Michigan’s new plan for climate change, the MI Healthy Climate Plan, is now in draft form and open for public comment. The plan aims to achieve Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2020 executive order, which directs state departments to reach “economy-wide carbon neutrality” in Michigan by 2050. The plan also aims […]
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Michigander Derrell Slaughter sees climate change activism as 'next civil rights movement'
TAKE OUR READER SURVEY HERE! In 2009, Derrell Slaughter began knocking on the doors of Michigan residents. He saw sustainability and climate change as the next civil rights movement and wanted to make sure Black people would be included in the transition to a green economy. Going city to city across the state, Slaughter organized […]
Posted inSolutions
Community fridges gain foothold in Michigan
By KAYLA NELSENCapital News Service LANSING — In Great Lakes cities and elsewhere not all of the fridges that sit on the sidewalks are bound for the landfill or for resale. Some are community hubs resisting environmental damage, food insecurity and the stigma of mutual aid. Community fridges are working fridges, usually connected to an […]