Michigan Senate and the Friday Night (Environmental) Massacre

This just arrived from the Sierra Club of Michigan. The Repubs seem bent on wrecking the environment just as they wrecked Michigan’s economy under Engler. If you live in Senator Cropsey’s district (which includes Isabella County), let him know this is making Michigan a laughing stock in this era of environmental crisis. 

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For more than a year, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers in the House worked to develop legislation to dramatically change energy policy in Michigan. Some elements of the package were good, some were bad. But on balance, most agreed that the House bills would move Michigan forward by requiring investment in the cheapest forms of energy.

The House package wasn’t perfect, but it was a step in the right direction. The bills contained a modest 1% Energy Efficiency savings standard per year, and a requirement that utilities provide 10% renewable energy by 2015 (a combined standard of 15.85% by 2015). Taken together, these policies would provide Michigan with affordable energy and take the first critical steps toward addressing global warming, while creating good-paying jobs.

Although Senate Republicans talk about clean energy and protecting ratepayers, their votes on Friday told a far different story. During the late night Massacre, they rammed through a completely irrelevant package of energy bills, which includes expensive and polluting coal as a renewable resource (no kidding!) and eliminated anything that could be construed as clean energy.

Under the Senate energy bills, Michigan will get more coal-fired power plants, skyrocketing energy costs, more pollution, more global warming, and few (if any) new jobs. Their combined standard for renewable energy and energy efficiency is 7% (Michigan already has almost 5%!) In short, the Senate energy bills are a joke. Whats even more appalling is that no one asked them to change the House bills!

The House bills passed their version of the energy bills with strong bi-partisan support and had the blessing of virtually every major interest group. There was no reason for the Senate to muck up the package. If they can’t improve the House bills, they should pass them intact, so that Michigan doesn’t end up a national laughing stock. 

Its time to let Senate Republicans know that they should lead, follow or get out of the way. Please send an email Senator Cropsey letting him know he got it wrong and needs to try again!

His contact information is: 

senacropsey@senate.michigan.gov, 

phone: 866-305-2133 

fax: (517) 373-8661

Help stop coal power plants from being built in Michigan

From NoCoalRush.com:

Michigan's energy future is in the crosshairs. Our state is threatened with an onslaught of at least seven more dirty coal-fired power plants that will keep Michigan locked in the energy dark ages, dependent on imported fossil fuels and producing more dangerous global warming pollution. More outdated dirty coal plants will hamper the development of clean energy and the good paying jobs that come with it.

But the Legislature can stop this from happening NOW by passing a NO NEW COAL PLANT policy until Michigan has a strong Clean Energy Plan that would:

Enact a strong renewable energy standard that requires energy providers to generate 20 percent of their electric power from renewable sources by 2020.

Enact strong statewide utility funded energy efficiency programs that result in at least 1% energy savings per year.

Protect consumers from having to absorb the skyrocketing future costs of coal burning.

Implement a long term energy plan that guarantees energy efficiency and renewable power are used before any more outdated coal plants are built.

Develop new standards for controlling the emissions of CO2.

Governor Granholm has been working tirelessly bring renewable energy to the state, which will help improve the health of both our environment and our economy. Increasing coal production will hurt our environment without offering much promise for many more new jobs. So be sure to visit NoCoalRush.com and let your lawmakers know that you support our environment and our economy and oppose the building of coal-fired power plants in Michigan.

And while you're at it, visit SmallStepBigChange.com and take the pledge to do your part.

The Maroon and Gold goes green

As a junior here at CMU, I like to make sure that CMU's administration is not only spending our tuition dollars wisely, but also making this school a socially responsible institution - that is, one that encourages people not only to take action to improve our communities and our world, but one that actually does so itself.

From CMU's online newsroom:

The use of woodchips as a renewable fuel source for steam requirements saves the university up to $2 million annually in fuel costs. An additional $1 million or more, over the course of the four-year contract, will be saved as a result of a university contract with Wolverine Power Marketing Cooperative to purchase electricity.

Facilities management and residence life also are in the process of modifying nearly 11,000 bathroom fixtures by installing special water conservation aerators and discs in order to reduce water and sewer costs. The new faucet diffusers will reduce water flow from 2.0 gallons per minute to 0.5 g.p.m.

Last year, it was decided that all future new buildings and major renovations would follow the U.S. Green Building Council guidelines. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program provides very specific guidelines that buildings must meet in order to become certified. According to Lawrence, the new education building will be the first on CMU's campus to follow the LEED criteria.

But it's not just the higher-ups at CMU who are doing their part for our environment - students, faculty, and staff are getting in on the act:

Meanwhile, recycling on-campus has doubled. In June 2007, CMU averaged 38 tons of recycling materials per month, a 19-ton increase from August 2003.

Call Cropsey TODAY: Vote No on the destructive CAFO bill

Michigan environmentalists have been engaged in an uphill fight with Senate Repubs concerning regulation of CAFOs. What, you might ask, are CAFOs? Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Think hundreds or thousands (of small animals) jammed into a confined space doing little but eating and defecating. That’s a CAFO.

Senate Republicans have been working hard to allow CAFOs to pollute at their hearts content. And pollute they do. If you live within a mile of a large CAFO, you are the beneficiary of the stench that rises from animal sewage in holding ponds. Unfortunately, these ponds sometimes leak into nearby streams and lakes, creating health hazards in addition to the already sickening smells.

The Senate will be voting today on whether or not to allow CAFOs to escape environmental laws. Senate Bill 504 would require CAFOs that are 5 times the size of a “large” CAFO (there are about a dozen in Michigan) to have a water permit. All others will be self-policing (“I don’t see any discolored water in the river, do you?).

Once a CAFO escapes such permit requirements, their records of safety, compliance with existing laws, etc., will become secret at the Dept of Agriculture and exempted from the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

The bill also lets CAFOs escape enforcement of animal waste applications that might run off into lakes or streams due to rain or thaws. “Gosh, I’m sorry your property values are gone just because the lake you built next to is now a cess pool. But you can’t do nothin’ about it!” Oh, and those citizen investigations? Forget it: not allowed.

This bill will gut any and all environmental regulations, both state and federal. Call you senator and tell him or her to vote againist this flagrant (fragrant?) disregard to our environment.

Ethanol and Global Warming

This is a digression from matters that are purely political, but there is an environmental battle going on in Ithaca that will affect us all in mid-Michigan. Perhaps you have read the series of articles in The Morning Sun about the Liberty Corporation’s efforts to build an ethanol plant in Ithaca.

On the surface, this seems like a boon to the local economy: farmers can sell their corn to the plant where it is converted into ethanol. Ethanol is then mixed with gasoline (at present–plans are to convert completely to ethanol to power vehicles in the future) which ultimately would reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Powering vehicles with ethanol would, according to the purveyors of ethanol, also reduce carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and thus reduce a proven “greenhouse gas” that is contributing to global warming. A win-win for everyone, right? Not quite.

Scientists–pesky folk that they are–are telling us that unless steps are taken to reduce fuel usage, we’ll be using 26 million barrels per day by 2025. Even if every kernel of corn grown in the United States was used to create ethanol and none was left for food, only 1.5 million barrels per day will be produced.

Our total oil use is expected to grow from 21 million barrels per day today to more than 26 million barrels per day by 2025, but even if we used all our corn to make ethanol–with nothing left for food or animal feed–we could only displace perhaps 1.5 million barrels per day of this demand. Even with my limited math skills I can see that there is a problem here; we would still be short 24.5 million barrels per day under current estimates.

Okay, you say, so humans and livestock would no longer eat corn, but think of the reduced CO2 emissions: that has to count for something, right? Ethanol does, indeed, reduce CO2 emissions by a small percentage (8.2%), and the percentage of reduced carbon monoxide is actually a little bit higher. But ethanol still produces CO2, and the proposed plant in Ithaca would produce between 315,000 to 600,000 tons of CO2 that would be released into the atmosphere each year by Liberty’s own calculations (315,000 is actually Liberty’s number, while the 600,00 figure comes from pre-and post-production estimates that Liberty excluded) .

This means that people living in the Ithaca area will have a new experience in the summer: smog. They will be very likely to have trouble breathing, will develop many kinds of respiratory problems, and suffer the various diseases and allergies consistent with living in a polluted region. True, the farmers who grow corn will have more money and there might be more jobs for people in Ithaca, but everyone in the area will have trouble breathing the air that comes with the process that turns their corn into ethanol.

A number of states across the country are rushing to set up ethanol plants without much forethought about the ecological issues involved. In fact, there are plans on the drawing boards for more than ninety coal-burning ethanol plants: one is already working in Iowa. The regulatory agencies in Iowa are apparently blind to the serious damage that burning coal has already caused. The continuing damage this plant is causing is not just within the borders of Iowa, but around the world, just as ethanol plants is Michigan will degrade not only our Michigan environment, but the environment of the entire planet.

Contact the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and let them know that our environment has to take precedence over money. The battle being fought in Ithaca is not just about Ithaca, but about the air we, our children, and our grandchildren will be breathing. Join the fight!