Michigan Environmental Report
News from Michigan Environmental Council on public policies affecting the health of Michigan's people and environment
With encouragement from Lt. Gov. Calley, advocates rally in Lansing to end lead poisoning
About 60 environmental advocates, public health professionals, lead-abatement contractors and other citizen-lobbyists gathered in Lansing on Wednesday for the fifth annual Lead Education Day organized by the Michigan Alliance for Lead Safe Homes (MIALSH). MEC Health Policy Director Tina Reynolds is coalition manager for MIALSH.
Action opportunity: Speak out for clean air in Detroit
MEC and our partners at Zero Waste Detroit urge southeast Michigan residents to attend an important public meeting Wednesday night and call on state environmental regulators to get tough on one of the city's worst polluters.
Michigan farms among those most at risk from wild bee decline, study shows
Seven agriculture-heavy Michigan counties are among the nation's most likely to be impacted by the loss of native pollinators, according to the first study to map wild bees in the United States.
Latest headlines show renewable energy going mainstream
I start most mornings at MEC by browsing the day's environmental headlines, mainly from email newsletters that I highly recommend-Midwest Energy News, InsideClimate News, Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate and Food and Environment Reporting Network, among others-so I'm used to seeing plenty of promising news about the rise of renewable energy.
Proposed school closings could include Denby High, a community hub and catalyst for transformation in Detroit
As I entered the school last week I noticed a quiet I had never associated with this building. The usually boisterous students moved almost silently from one class to another. I missed the normal yelling and jostling of my young people at Denby High School. A student in the hallway asked me, "Ms. Sandra, do you know they are going to close our school?"
Making connections and moving forward at MEC's legislative breakfast
Good food, good conversation and a good turnout -- despite an overnight snowstorm -- made the Michigan Environmental Council's legislative breakfast on Tuesday perhaps our best yet.
Michigan Environmental Council lays out policy agenda for 2017-2018
Testing all children for lead exposure, passing a statewide code for septic systems and becoming the first state east of the Mississippi River to open an Office of Outdoor Recreation are among the priorities in a new policy agenda unveiled Monday by the Michigan Environmental Council.
President's Column: Moving forward, recommitted to protecting the health of Michigan's people and environment
November 9 didn't turn out to be the morning many of us had hoped for or expected. Between Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a scant 80,000 votes–fewer than the number of Michigan football fans at the Big House on a typical fall Saturday–determined the outcome in the Electoral College. In Michigan, the difference was just over 10,000 votes, about two-tenths of a percentage point.