While there is no question that this devastating recession has hit Michigan’s working families hard, there is solid evidence that our efforts to make Michigan a global center for clean energy production and innovation are starting to pay off.

Last year, the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth released the state’s first-ever Green Jobs Report, which showed that more than 100,000 of our state’s residents are already in working in Michigan’s Green Economy.

And just yesterday, Business Facilities Magazine ranked Michigan No. 3 in the country as an alternative energy leader, noting that “hardly a week goes by without a major piece of ‘green’ news from the Wolverine State.”

In a sign of the changing Michigan economy, Michigan is actually ranked higher as an alternative energy leader than our ranking for automotive manufacturing strength! Now there is no question that we need a stronger automotive sector for our state to get back on its feet and for Michigan’s working families to have more economic security (and there has recently been some good news on that front), but these examples underscore the fact that our efforts to diversify Michigan’s economy are working.

A recent report on wind manufacturing in America shows that manufacturing jobs in the wind industry have grown from 2,500 jobs in 2004 to 18,500 jobs in 2009 – and the American Wind Energy Association has labeled Michigan “a manufacturing powerhouse” in wind energy.

These studies are backed up by the conclusions from the Green Jobs Report. From 2005 to 2008, when the overall Michigan economy shrank by a rate of 5.4%, job creation in Michigan’s Green Economy actually increased by 7.7%, and job creation in the renewable energy sector grew by an incredible 30% during that time!

And that’s true here in Northwest Michigan as well. It was only a few years ago that MasTech Manufacturing in Manistee was facing an uncertain future. Now, as a result of a partnership with Windspire Energy, it’s a recognized leader in residential-scale wind installation. And the success of the MasTech/ Windspire partnership has helped bring laid-off workers at Ludington’s Whitehall Industries back to work. What’s more, MasTech attracted Amptech into the Manistee Industrial Park, helping to create a critical mass of local businesses working together on this project – and creating jobs for local workers in the process. And companies like Contractors Building Supply in Copemish have taken advantage of increased demand for these “Made in Michigan” clean energy devices to grow their business as well. Add to that the Consumers Energy wind project in Mason County and Duke Energy’s interest in Manistee and Benzie counties, and it’s clear that clean energy is already playing a major role in building Michigan’s economy of the future – and creating good-paying jobs for Michigan workers today!

We’re at a crossroads – a defining moment. Clean energy represents a bright spot in our troubled economy, and over the last two years we’ve made progress. But there is much, much more work to be done. We’ve got to get Michigan back to work, and I look forward to working with people across Northwest Michigan and across the state to make that happen.

The difference on Great Lakes issues couldn’t be clearer. I have been a champion of efforts to protect the Great Lakes from a range of threats. As State Representative I will close the loopholes that allow private companies to take our water and will reaffirm the fact that Michigan’s water is a public resource belonging to the people of Michigan. Simply put, our water is not for sale.

Incredibly, my opponent takes a very different view. As recently as last week, at a candidate forum in Frankfort, he called the idea that our Great Lakes are at risk a “mis-begotten fallacy.” He went on to say that “the western states that want our water won’t be coming to Lake Michigan to get your water, they’re gonna go to the Mississippi River and stop there; it makes no sense to put a pipeline all the way to Lake Michigan.”

This is a dangerous position to take.

My opponent is essentially saying that we don’t have to worry about our lakes and that no protections are needed. His strategy for ensuring that future generations are able to enjoy all that Lake Michigan has to offer essentially comes down to hoping that western states and others are not thirsty enough to take our water. This is consistent with his earlier positions on Great Lakes issues where he called the recently signed Great Lakes Compact unnecessary and the idea that we should do more to protect the Great Lakes, ridiculous. This approach, of ignoring the very real threats facing the Great Lakes and burying your head in the sand when it comes to finding ways to protect them is wrong for Michigan and wrong for the voters of this district.

Not only is fresh water our most precious and abundant natural resource – it is our most defining in terms of our history and legacy as a state. As our nickname so aptly points out the “Great Lakes State,” which is often referred to as our country’s “third coast,” has been our lifeblood since even before statehood. From early settlement and the fur trade, to the lumber industry, and the mining boom of the Upper Peninsula, to regular shipping and trading, to the tourism boom… the Great Lakes define us as people and workers, and are part of our culture as Michiganians.

Anyone who represents the 101st district, with its hundreds of miles of lakeshore along Lake Michigan must be a champion in the legislature on issues pertaining to the Great Lakes and protecting Michigan’s water. With my background in environmental law and the support of a wide range of conservation organizations, I will be a strong and consistent voice for our Great Lakes. My opponent fails this crucial test.

LUDINGTON – State House candidate Dan Scripps today called for change to protect local beaches and the tourism dollars they generate after hundreds of pounds of trash washed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Manistee and Mason counties this week.

“An influx of trash is a growing problem in Northwest Michigan and across the state,” said Scripps, a candidate for the 101st House District.  “We must strengthen our polluter pay laws in Michigan to increase accountability and ensure that polluters pay their fair share when they harm our land, air and water. Anyone who pollutes our Great Lakes and endangers the beaches where our children play should not get off with a slap on the wrist.”

According to a July 15 Associated Press article, the garbage that washed onto a 10-mile stretch of Lake Michigan beaches overnight Sunday included medical waste such as prescription drug bottles and hypodermic syringes. Officials in Manistee County were forced to close a beach where some junk piles had reached 8 inches high. Officials are working to determine where the trash originated.

Scripps today also called on the State Senate to take action on a plan passed by the State House over a year ago, which increases the state’s paltry dumping charge to the highest in the Midwest. At 21 cents per ton, Michigan currently has the lowest dumping charge of any state in the Great Lakes region. This low dumping charge acts as a magnet for Canadian and out-of-state trash. Garbage from Wisconsin, Canada, Ohio, Indiana, and as far away as New Jersey and Florida comes to Michigan so companies can cash in on bargain basement disposal rates. The House plan also bans new landfills and strictly limits the expansion of existing landfills until 2012.

“One of the largest industries in northwestern Michigan – tourism – is completely dependent on keeping our air, land and water clean and healthy,” said Scripps, who has made protecting Michigan’s precious natural resources a hallmark of his campaign. “Michigan is a beautiful place to fish, hunt and enjoy the outdoors, and we need to keep it that way. It’s time to end the trash industry’s free ride in our state.”

The 101st District includes Mason, Manistee, Benzie, and Leelanau counties. The Inside Michigan Politics Newsletter lists it as a “Toss Up” and it is also one of the “Top 10 State House Seats to Watch,” according to the Michigan Information and Research Service.

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This weekend marks the 3rd Annual Michigan Energy Fair put on by the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association that will be held right in the heart of the 101st District at the Manistee County Fair Grounds in Onekama. The fair has been called “one of the most comprehensive expositions of renewable energy generating equipment, home and business energy efficiency techniques, and technical workshops in the state”. The event expects to host over 100 exhibitors and sponsors as well as number over 1000 visitors. Notable speakers, including Governor Granholm, and Ann Arbor’s energy coordinator Dave Konkle, will also be on hand.

The excitement that surrounds the Michigan Energy Fair is thrilling, and we should be proud it calls Northwest Michigan home. We are in a unique position here in the 101st District where we have the amazing potential to be top leaders in the nation for renewable energy production and innovation. This provides us with the opportunity in Manistee County and Northwest Michigan to really have an economic advantage. If we can create, invent and manufacture the renewable energy systems that are going to build that future here in Northwest Michigan, that’s jobs! There are companies that are looking at Manistee County right now, there are companies that have announced an interest in Mason county, right now, that would bring jobs to this area. We are in a position here in Michigan where we can do the right thing from an environmental and energy standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint. I urge you to check out the fair this weekend and learn more about this amazing opportunity! For more information about schedules, speakers, exhibits, and places to stay go here.

You can also check out a video here of the fair organizer Jeremy Wittrock during last year’s fair:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=SCLKtjh3qzQ[/youtube]

The Record-Eagle also ran a Forum piece by State Senator Patty Birkholz defending the water withdrawal legislation she has introduced. The legislation relies on a computer model to determine “appropriate” withdrawals. The problem is, the computer model would allow diversions of up to 42% from the Betsie River, 25% from the Boardman, 22% from the Pere Marquette, 22% from the Manistee, and up to 22% from the Au Sable. Clearly, this computer model is broken, which is why Birkholz’s legislation is opposed by groups from the Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited to the Michigan Environmental Council to Great Lakes, Great Michigan, a coalition of organizations dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes from various threats. To be fair, unlike too many of her Republican colleagues, Senator Birkholz is often on the right side of conservation issues. But in this case, it seems she’s let a blind belief in a computer model get in the way of common sense for how to protect Michigan’s water. A system that drains 25% or more from some of Michigan’s Blue Ribbon trout streams is simply wrong.

Finally, a new report out yesterday from MSU’s Land Policy Institute puts more concrete numbers on the economic benefits of wind energy development in the state of Michigan. Looking only at jobs and investment tied directly to commercial wind generation, the study predicted that wind energy will produce 1,100 construction jobs annually for the next two decades, $1.25 billion in construction-related investment over that timeline, $4.8 million each year in lease payments to farmers and other land owners by 2010 (a number that will increase by a factor of 10 – to $47 million annually – by 2029), and more than 3000 permanent, full-time jobs related to the maintenance and management of Michigan’s wind installations, in addition to other economic benefits. (Hat tip to the Great Lakes IT Report for pointing me to this story.)

Michigan has some of the best natural resources of any place in the world, but these resources are under pressure from a number of different threats. These stories show that our natural resources are not only worth protecting from a conservation perspective, but that a better understanding of how to use our natural advantages can provide jobs and economic investment for a state that needs both. A green future for Michigan is a brighter future indeed!

Unfortunately, the current representative for the 101st District has been on a bit of a slump recently. In fact, he hasn’t really gotten his footing since the legislature reconvened last January. In fact, just today – 181 days into this legislative session – our representative introduced his very first bill of the session! Evidently, with a budget crisis in Lansing and real economic challenges facing our state, he was perfectly happy with the status quo and couldn’t find a single thing that needed fixing or improving. For those tracking the stats at home, out of the 110 members of the Michigan State House, only two have done less so far than the representative from the 101st District, with Republicans Jack Brandenburg and John Stahl failing to sponsor a single item so far this year (three others have one each, but all of them got around to it before today). Oh, and the bill introduced today? It makes minor revisions to two definitions in the Michigan Penal Code. Perhaps the slump is not quite over yet…

Meanwhile, Senator Gerald Van Woerkom, whose district covers Mason county as well as three others, has been best known this year for his role in pushing a controversial legislative package dealing with how CAFOs are regulated under Michigan law. The bottom line is that it’s impossible to argue with the science behind the criticism of CAFOs – or factory farms, as critics call them – from a human health and water protection standpoint. However, CAFO proponents also have a point when they point to the economic stresses facing today’s farmers. With rising land costs and diminishing profit margins, many farmers feel that their only option for success is to achieve economies of scale, which CAFOs certainly provide. Furthermore, as last year’s controversy over the Suttons Bay Rooster demonstrated, the conflict between the traditional, rural way of life that has characterized much of the history of Northwest Michigan and the urban assumptions many new residents bring with them when they move here is only intensifying. While I think the key to solving both dilemmas in the long term is to reconnect people with where they get their food – creating massive new markets for local farmers and improving the freshness of our food intake in the process – it’s hard to discount the very real fears facing our local farmers. Rather than trying to find a true solution that balanced all of these concerns, however, Van Woerkom deliberately pressed forward with an antagonistic plan designed to again divide environmentalists and farmers against each other. Perhaps the ultimate sad irony in this whole story is that instead of allowing the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program to bridge the artificial divide between those in the agricultural and conservation communities by ensuring agricultural best practices and recognizing the role farmers play as the original stewards of the land, Van Woerkom cynically used this innovative and voluntary program to drive a wedge between environmentalists and farmers.

And then there’s Senator McManus, who represents Manistee, Benzie and Leelanau counties, as well as a number of others. First was her rather strange proposal to create a new state park, funded not through state park funds but through a voluntary additional contribution, that would include all of Michigan’s Great Lakes bottomlands. While the intent to promote diving in Michigan waters was certainly a good one, this proposal has to rank right up there with the iPod story for sheer strangeness. And if you thought that was weird, then check out the meltdown when local students dared question the wisdom of balancing the state’s budget on the backs of our schools. Then there was her comment to the Leelanau Enterprise that she is working on a new revenue source for DNR funding beyond traditional hunting and fishing licenses. As is the m.o. of the Senate GOP caucus, however, she obviously couldn’t divulge any more information to us commoners: “I can’t give you specific details because it’s all been behind closed doors.” While I certainly support greater funding for the DNR and conservation programs in general, it is more than a bit disingenuous for McManus to call for “a new revenue source” for conservation funding after voting in lockstep with her Republican colleagues to cut $311,000 from the Department of Environmental Quality and $510,000 from the Department of Natural Resources earlier this year (and that was just in this year’s budget!). Where was the “new revenue source” then? Or, come to think of it, where is it now?

And then finally, after her original irresponsible vote to eliminate the Single Business Tax without a replacement, leading to multiple downgrading of Michigan’s credit rating and provoking the worst parts of our current budget crisis, McManus was one of just three Senators to vote against the new Michigan Business Tax (see page 60). This legislative compromise represents a tax cut for 40,000 Michigan small businesses and our major manufacturers, and won the endorsement of the Small Business Association of Michigan, and even the Michigan branch of the National Federation of Business, which opposed replacing the SBT, but called the replacement “a welcome retreat from proposals being pushed by big business and chambers of commerce that would have raised taxes on many small businesses in order to finance a generous tax cut for a handful of large corporations. From that perspective, the new plan is a victory for many Michigan small-business owners.” The fact that McManus would vote against a tax cut for the majority of Michigan small businesses shows just how out of the mainstream she has become. This is a vote McManus should have to own up to for the rest of her political career. It’s time for all of us in Northwest Michigan to relegate the McManus brand of politics to what President Reagan once called “the ash heap of history.”

So that’s it – the All Star Break! And while local people may not have much to cheer for when it comes to our representatives in Lansing, at least we still have the Tigers!

It’s being reported that Toyota plans to make every one of its cars a hybrid by 2020. You may have heard of Toyota – they’re the ones that, for the first time ever, surpassed GM in sales for the first quarter of 2007. In addition, Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (and Michigan native), recently stated that the global response to climate change presented ”a much larger opportunity” and would spur a business revolution “bigger than the Internet.” And this isn’t just some future thing: according to the 2006 Annual Review from the law firm of Latham & Watkins (where I worked before returning home last year), “Clean technology … garnered 10% of all U.S. venture capital money in 2006.” That’s a huge number, and it’s only getting bigger.

Not only that, a recent NextEnergy report notes that of the range of possible Renewable Portfolio Standards (where states require a certain level of their energy needs be met through renewable energy sources), the greenest option from an environmental standpoint was also the most economically advantageous. The thing is, even the most ambitious legislation doesn’t only brings us up to where other states already are. Accoding to a report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia have already enacted an RPS. The most ambitious legislation of 10% by 2015 and 20% by 2020 (which is far better than the 15% by 2025 called for in the MPSC’s 21st Century Energy Plan) only puts us in the middle of the pack, showing just how badly we need to enact it, and now. New Jersey, New Mexico and Colorado all already require 20% by 2020; for Minnesota, it’s 30% by 2020; 20% by 2015 in Nevada; 25% by 2013 in New York; and 20% by 2016 in California.

So how do we make it happen in Michigan? To some extent, it already is. Just today I received my monthly Michigan Energy Report (you can sign up here), detailing much of the excitement taking place in Michigan’s growing renewable energy sector. And next month, over 4,000 people are expected in Onekama for the 2nd Annual Michigan Energy Fair. In addition, the next meeting of the Wind Manufacturing Energy Group, a coalition of organizations focused on the potential of wind energy in Michigan that has been meeting regularly over the last five years, is actually taking place at Crystal Mountain the day before the Energy Fair kicks off. This is a good start. Enacting a bold RPS, coupled with measures to promote energy efficiency, is the next step. I have more ideas on where we go from here, but the bottom line is that investing in renewable energy – making Michigan a global center for renewable energy production, innovation and investment – is perhaps the single best way to get our state back on its feet, our people back to work and Michigan moving forward again.

I know times are tight and we’re all scrambling to protect the jobs and economic stimulus tourism provides, but I firmly believe we’re stronger together that we are apart. As I’ve noted previously, Michigan’s tourism spending trails behind the investment made by other states. This hurts all of us, whether you live in Muskegon, Frankfort, Leland or anywhere else. Rather than competing against each other, we should do far more to make sure others know about all the opportunities the Lake Michigan coast provides to visitors and residents alike. To some degree, we’re already doing this, but we should be doing far more. From world-class state parks, state and national forests, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, picturesque little villages and some of the best fly fishing around, Northwest Michigan has it all. We just need to share all that we have going for us with a much wider audience.

Today, PRI’s program The World program featured a story on American philanthropist Greg Carr, who’s spending $40 million to promote eco-tourism in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. In explaining how he’s been able to convince locals in this part of southern Africa, one of the poorest regions on earth, not to take the unsustainable and destructive approach of poaching and clear-cutting to feed their families, Carr tells the story of a young man who had learned English in order to be a paid guide for Americans and Europeans visiting the park. Carr explains that that young man’s goal now is to learn enough languages so that he can guide any European who visits the park, and that as a result, the young man will earn as much as 20 times as much as his father, who runs a small slash-and-burn subsistence farm. Carr uses this as an example of developing a skill and making it in “a knowledge industry.”

Also today, one of my favorite journalists, Jack Lessenberry, argued that Michigan’s choice is to “Fund education – or die.” Lessenberry writes that “our only hope, really, is to attract new high-tech, new-economy jobs.” How do we do that? Again Lessenberry has an answer: “We need to do everything we can to get more of our students in colleges and universities and high-tech vocational programs, or they will have no future.” In addition, “as important as higher education is, it means nothing if we don’t have decent lower education for everyone — kindergarten through high school.”

My only criticism of Lessenberry’s argument is that schooling should start even earlier – that a first step is to make a real commitment to early childhood education in Michigan. Tomorrow, by the way, the Michigan Early Childhood Investment Corporation is sponsoring a presentation by Rob Grunewald, an Associate Economist for the Federal Bank of Minneapolis, who will tell legislators and others that according to a recent report, the state gets $17 in benefits for every $1 it invests in quality preschool. One quote from Grunewald especially stood out: “In these times of budget shortfall it’s important to protect what investments are currently in place in those areas because ultimately investments in early education to pay back in the long run.”

It seems, however, that not everyone in Lansing is listening to this economist. Down in Lansing today, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop and his GOP colleagues pushed through a series of devastating cuts after Bishop’s phony budget deal went nowhere. Included among the cuts are $25,500 to Early Childhood Education. What was that about investing in our future? Paging Federal Bank of Minneapolis Economist Rob Grunewald to the Senate chamber…

Senate Republicans also slashed nearly $18 million from Michigan’s community colleges, including $128,900 from West Shore Community College in Scottville and $534,100 from Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City; $83,300 for screenings and treatment services for newborns (Welcome to Michigan!); $333,300 from Family, Maternal, and Children’s Health Services for their childhood lead program; $666,700 from the pregnancy prevention program (but don’t go looking to these “Pro-Life” legislators if you do find yourself with an unwanted pregnancy); $55,600 from a nutrition program for the elderly; over $97 million from higher education (nevermind, Jack Lessenberry, nevermind); $3.5 million of state aid to libraries; over half-a-million from the Department of Natural Resources; and over $90 million in revenue sharing to local governments. And don’t forget: Senate Republicans today voted to cut $15 million from the School Aid Fund, while robbing $300 million (subscription required) from the 21st Century Jobs Fund. (You can read through all the cuts here and here.)

So how do these things fit together, these three disparate strands all reported on the same day. It’s simple. If we don’t invest in Michigan, who will? That $25,500 cut in early childhood programs will end up costing Michigan over $433,000 in the long run. Robbing $300 million from the 21st Century Jobs Fund to cover the short-sighted irresponsibility of the Senate Republicans makes it that much harder for Michigan to get back on her feet. And the cuts to higher education, community colleges and the school aid fund – totaling $130 million! – makes Michigan’s turnaround that much more difficult, and that much further away.

That 16 year old young man in Mozambique understands something that Mike Bishop and his Republican colleagues do not and probably never will: that education and skills are the only true path to future prosperity. We can’t cut our way to a brighter future. We need to invest in it.

This debate, which is possible because of the so-called Water Legacy Act that opened up Michigan’s publicly-owned lakes, rivers and streams for companies like Nestle to use for private gain, is simply the latest instance of a private corporation selling off a public resource with complete disregard for the long-term damage such diversions will cause. Just last month, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved Nestle’s diversion plant in Osceola County that will rob water from tributaries to the Muskegon River. And next Thursday, March 15, the public comment period closes for Nestle’s application for a diversion plant in Newaygo County that would take water from the Pere Marquette and White Rivers. (Sign the petition opposing the application here.)

These rivers – the Pere Marquette, the Manistee, the White and the Muskegon – represent some of the best trout fishing in the world. By bringing anglers from across the state and across the country for the salmon and steelhead runs each year, as well as the great hatches that drive trout – and trout fisherman – crazy, the rivers represent the economic lifeblood of many of our communities. (It’s worth noting that Kalkaska itself hosts the National Trout Festival each year.)

Equally – if not more – important, they define our Northwest Michigan way of life. Few among us haven’t relieved the stress of a hard day at work (or on the campaign trail) by grabbing our rods and casting our cares away, or found solace as the water rushes by, or have had our breath taken away by a view as we cross a bridge or turn a bend in the road that reveals a previously hidden piece of this place we call home.

These resources are too important – to our communities, to our economy and to our way of life – to simply give them away one bottle at a time. With Nestle going full speed ahead to obtain their permits before we the people can say no, we have no time to lose.