Month: February 2019

Shaking Off the Rust: Michigan’s Guv Brings State into Climate Fight

Here in Michigan, newly elected Guv Gretchen Whitmer has transformed the Department of Environmental Quality into the Department of Environment,Great Lakes, and Energy,  (DEGLE?) and joined a multi-state climate agreement.

She auspiciously named my friend Liesl Eichler Clark head of the new agency. See Liesl above in my wind energy video from last year.

Regulatory mechanisms in place to encourage renewables, big public education effort bearing fruit. In the last week, we’ve seen announcements for huge new solar and wind developments. Stay tuned.

Inside Climate News:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan signed orders on Monday to revamp the state’s environmental policy apparatus, becoming the latest newly elected Democratic leader in an industrial swing state to pick up the reins of action on climate change.

Whitmer is creating a new office of climate and energy that will coordinate efforts across state government to address climate change and will ensure that climate change is a consideration in the vetting of new policies.

She also signed an order to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group of governors who commit to upholding the principles of the Paris climate agreement. Michigan is the 20th governor to join, following similar actions by others who came to power after running green campaigns and toppling Republican incumbents. In the past few weeks, the governors of Illinois and New Mexico have also joined.

Michigan stood out as a fulcrum of Donald Trump’s narrow electoral victory. It’s an economic monument to the internal combustion engine, but also a place where the urgency of confronting environmental challenges, including climate change, can’t be ignored.

“We see this as part of a larger trend we’re seeing across the country with new governors who ran on climate, who ran on transitions to 100 percent clean energy,” said Sara Jordan, manager of the League of Conservation Voters’ Energy for All campaign. “I think you’re seeing a lot of these governors not wanting to be left behind in this transition.”

Gretchen Whitmer in the Detroit Free Press:

Tomorrow, the temperature is expected to be around 50 degrees. That’s a 100 degree difference from last Thursday, when parts of Michigan experienced -52 degree weather with windchill.

Continue reading “Shaking Off the Rust: Michigan’s Guv Brings State into Climate Fight”

Womp Womp. Budweiser Wind Commercial Goes on, to Consternation of Fossil Fuel Activists

Energy and Policy Institute:

The pro-wind power Budweiser ad that Anheuser-Busch will air during the Super Bowl on Sunday is being attacked by the fossil fuel industry.

The Kentucky Coal Association is among the groups attacking the Budweiser ad, which has already racked up nearly 14 million views on YouTube. Their attack was echoed by the website ClimateDepot.com, a project of a coal-backed group called the Committee for Constructive Tomorrow.

“Wind never felt better,” the Budweiser ad says. “Now brewed with wind power for a better tomorrow.”

The first volley came from the American Energy Alliance just one day after Anheuser-Busch announced the ad. It described Budweiser’s pro-wind power statement as a “joke.”

The American Energy Alliance is the “advocacy arm” of the Institute for Energy Research. Together these affiliated political groups have received millions of dollars from the Koch brothers, as well as money from the coal industry.

The attack was soon joined by Kevon Martis, an anti-wind activist with ties to the Institute for Energy Research and other groups funded by polluting industries.

Martis posted a video on Facebook in which he protested the Budweiser ad by dumping a can of the company’s beer on the ground. Martis said in the video that he is the director of the Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition, a Michigan-based anti-wind group.

Not just for Greenies any more. – Financial Time Economist calls for Bold Leadership on Climate

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”.

Climate Action. Not just for Greenies any more.

In the Face of Anti-Wind Threats, Intimidation, People are Standing up

Big victory this week for the wind industry, the State of Michigan, and the next thousand generations of human beings – when the Isabella County Planning Commission gave a conditional green light to what will be Michigan’s largest wind development, smack in the the hard-scrabble heart of the state.

Huge public support was in evidence as speaker after speaker stood up – in the face of months of ugly abuse and intimidation attempts – and spoke out in support of community, land, family, and our children’s future.

At the end, after the unanimous vote was taken – a brief comment period afforded Anti-wind Attorney Josh Nolan a chance to melt down, and deliver an amazingly brazen threat to those willing to stand up to the fossil driven fake-grassroots campaign that has been building in the midwest over the last 7 or 8 years.  I’ve seen Nolan make slightly more veiled threats in the past, but this was rather amazing, glad I caught it on camera.

Meanwhile, a few weeks before, in opening a meeting of the Casnovia, MI Township Board, Supervisor Kelli Ashbaugh summarized a harrowing week of abuse that she and other board members had been subjected to, merely for having the temerity to discharge their responsibilities and give consideration to a local wind development.

In coming weeks I’ll be posting more voices from the majority, the folks who want and desperately need the economic stability that wind brings, while preserving the rural character of small towns and rural communities.
For now, listen to John Fabian, whose simple, heartfelt, and dead on message brought the house down toward the end of Thursday’s meeting. Continue reading “In the Face of Anti-Wind Threats, Intimidation, People are Standing up”