About Environment Michigan
Environment Michigan is a statewide, citizen-based advocacy organization. Our professional staff combines independent research, practical ideas and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win results for Michigan’s environment. Environment Michigan draws on over 30 years of success in tackling our state’s top environmental problems.
Renew Michigan with Clean Energy
Michigan’s current energy path is expensive, dangerous and unsustainable. Michiganders spend over $18 billion to import
costly, polluting fossil fuels and nuclear energy. We need new energy future that is affordable, clean, homegrown, job-intensive and sustainable.
Environment Michigan supports...
- Creating a Renewable Energy Standard requiring electric companies to produce or purchase 20 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources such as wind, biomass or solar by 2020.
- Creating utility-funded energy effi ciency programs
that would achieve at least 1 percent energy savings
per year—the cleanest, cheapest and fastest-toimplement
way to meet our energy needs. - A comprehensive energy planning process that fully recognizes the relative merits of effi ciency and renewable power, distinguishes between cleaner and dirtier sources of energy, and would save rate payers millions of dollars through prioritization of energy efficiency over building expensive, new plants.
- Protecting Michiganders from the cost of new greenhouse gas emissions from proposed power plants, which makes building new dirty power plants less attractive.
- Setting energy effi ciency standards for high impact appliances and products—saving Michiganders over $2 billion.
- Updating residential and commercial building codes to reflect energy-saving opportunities.
Environment Michigan opposes...
- New electricity generation from nuclear or coal facilities. Investments in renewable power and energy efficiency should be maximized first instead.
Protect and Restore Our Great Lakes
The Great Lakes define our state and are Michigan’s most valuable resource. But because of industrial pollution, antiquated
sewage systems, invasive species and unregulated use, the Lakes are in trouble. Scientists say they are on the brink of collapse.
Environment Michigan supports...
- Requiring that water be used effi ciently, preventing large-scale water diversions, guaranteeing public control over our water, and ensuring that water withdrawals do not harm our natural resources. These protections should be adopted when the Legislature ratifies the Great Lakes Water Compact.
- Federal and state matching funding of $20 billion to implement the Great Lakes Regional Collaborative’s Action Plan to Protect and Restore the Great Lakes.
- Cracking down on polluters by setting mandatory fines for serious and chronic violators of the Clean water Act, increasing existing fi nes, and allocating adequate funding for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
- Enforcing laws to prevent sewage pollution from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
- Congress restoring the original intent of the Clean Water Act to protect all waters in the United States, including the Great Lakes.
Protect Our Natural Heritage
Michigan’s public lands form the backbone of our recreational economy and defi ne the character of our state. Unfortunately, they are at risk from encroaching development and increasing logging, mining and drilling.
Environment Michigan supports...
- Full implementation of the Wilderness and Natural Areas Act to protect 10 percent (450,000 acres) of our state land, ending a 20-year lag in natural area dedications.
- Adequate funding for the Department of Natural Resources to ensure state parks, waterways and forests are sustainably managed and accessible to all citizens.
Environment Michigan opposes...
- Efforts to privatize or sell public lands without an enforceable guarantee of resource stewardship and public access.
- Efforts to harvest our state’s mineral, timber, or energy resources in ways that damage our waters, our wildlife, or our property – including sulfi de mining, required timber sales, and energy leases without full environmental assessments.
Eliminate Toxins, Protect Children’s Health
Toxic chemicals such as mercury, lead and dioxin have been linked to neurological and developmental problems, reproductive system damage, immune system impairment and cancer. When they enter our waterways, they make our fish unsafe to eat and hurt our recreational economy.
Environment Michigan supports...
- Reducing mercury pollution from power plants by 90 percent by 2015 or sooner to ensure the future of our Great lakes and that our fish are safe to eat.
- Banning and phasing out consumer products that contain mercury.
- Reducing mercury pollution from all industrial sources of mercury, including cement plants.