Yesterday, Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) Chairman J. Peter Lark presented Governor Granholm with the MPSC’s much-anticipated (and overdue) 21st Century Energy Plan. Despite the official fanfare, however, the plan, with its call for watered-down renewable portfolio standards and the immediate construction of new coal-fired power plants, seems better suited to the 19th-century than to [...]
Two more steps on the road to the new Michigan economy
August 29, 2006 – 10:23 am
Two announcements this week helped move Michigan forward on the path to leading the country in alternative energy innovation, production, and distribution. Yesterday, Governor Granholm announced $500,000 in grants to convert 1,000 Michigan fuel pumps to bio-diesel or ethanol by 2008. And on Monday the governor announced that The Venture Michigan Fund I has $200 [...]
Energy Fair Offers Promise of Growth for Northwest Michigan
June 15, 2006 – 11:18 am
In 1925, Henry Ford predicted that cars rolling off his assembly lines would someday be fueled by vegetation “like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust – almost anything.” [1] Nearly a century later, renewable, plant-based fuel is on its way to becoming a large-scale reality. This weekend, the Michigan Energy [...]
Brains, courage and backbone
April 28, 2006 – 11:41 am
In conversations I’ve had with people up and down the district, there is a keen awareness of the challenges facing our state. Yet in Lansing, it’s more politics as usual, with the legislature alternating between frivolous legislation (like repealing a tax that wasn’t being collected) and pure obstructionism. Despite the political games, however, there is [...]
Building a sustainable Michigan
February 3, 2006 – 2:39 pm
Sustainability – the belief that we have a moral responsibility to ensure that today’s actions do nothing to threaten our children’s future – is the thread that ties the issues of this campaign together. As we choose the path to our future, we need to keep the faces of that future – our daughters, our [...]
