After assuming office in early 2021, President Joe Biden announced the Justice40 initiative, which promised that 40 percent of federal investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and other climate-related programs would be directed toward disadvantaged communities. The program is an effort to counteract the legacy of past policies that have unevenly distributed the country’s environmental burdens, […]

Municipalities from Ann Arbor to Highland Park to Pontiac are calling for public utilities amid DTE power outages.

Officials in Michigan and Texas were blindsided this week when they learned that contaminated soil and liquid from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio were coming to disposal sites just outside Detroit and Houston, or had already arrived. “We have a right to know; 1.8 million people have the right to know,” […]

A recent request by Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel could require utilities to inform regulators about how much they spend on lobbying when requesting rate increases, giving officials and the public more insight into their spending to influence public policies that ultimately affect ratepayers. Nessel’s request follows a recent report that showed DTE Energy-linked dark […]

Despite objections from more than a dozen residents who said the move would take away their last leverage to secure community benefits, Detroit City Council voted 6 to 3 Tuesday to approve a 3.8-acre land transfer to the Moroun-owned Detroit International Bridge Company. The vote closes the book on a 2015 deal that the council […]

Michael F. Gorman, University of Dayton Less than two weeks after train cars filled with hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio and caught fire, a truck carrying nitric acid crashed on a major highway outside Tucson, Arizona, killing the driver and releasing toxic chemicals into the air. The Arizona hazmat disaster shut down Interstate 10, a […]

From sunshine and 55-plus degree weather to snow and freezing temperatures just a few days later, climate change affects winter in the Motor City.  This winter is one of the top 10 warmest on record for Detroit. The city has received a foot less snow than the average for this time of year, according to […]

Among the environmental legislation recently introduced by Michigan Democrats is a repeal of the state’s “no stricter than federal” law, passed at the end of Gov. Rick Snyder’s tenure during 2018’s lame-duck session.  The law prohibits state agencies from making rules stricter than federal standards unless they establish “that there was a clear and convincing […]