Today Great Lakes governors released a Great Lakes 2020 platform in advance of the Democratic presidential debates scheduled for July 30 and 31 in Detroit. The platform shows that Great Lakes restoration investments are demonstrating results, but serious threats to public health and water quality remain, including underfunded water infrastructure, invasive species, runoff pollution and PFAS contamination.

Leaders of Midwestern environmental councils -- representing hundreds of nonprofit environmental, health, and conservation groups -- urged candidates to outline how they would address these environmental issues facing the region, and issued the following statements.

Today the City of Detroit released their first sustainability strategy, the Sustainability Action Agenda (SAA), developed through City leadership and extensive community engagement to provide clear goals and outcomes for a sustainable city.  

Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) is proud to partner with the City of Detroit’s Office of Sustainability in development of the Sustainability Action Agenda. MEC has worked diligently in Detroit for many years to create a clean, healthy and safe environment where people want to live, work and play, and has long advocated for an Office of Sustainability to advance sustainability goals in the city.

Michigan Environmental Council President Conan Smith issued the following statement in response to today's legal steps by AG Nessel to decommission Line 5, and Gov. Whitmer's executive action directing the DNR to perform a comprehensive review of Enbridge's Easement compliance:

"Michigan Environmental Council supports the legal action taken by Attorney General Nessel against Enbridge to end the threat of Line 5 in the Great Lakes. We thank her for the clear filing of summary disposition on Enbridge’s lawsuit, and hope for swift resolution of that lawsuit.