Echo

Public comment period on new Bay County coal plant ends Wednesday

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(MI) Bay City Times – Wednesday is the last day for public comment on a draft air permit for a new coal-fired power plant in Bay County. So far, more than 1,000 comments have been received about the proposed Consumers Energy project, said Mary Ann Dolehanty, with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in Lansing. “The majority of them are form letters, that are probably 50-50 split,” for and against the new plant, a proposed $2.3 billion, 800-megawatt expansion to the Karn-Weadock complex in Hampton Township, said Dolehanty, acting permit section supervisor for the DEQ Air Quality Division. More

Echo

EPA is urged to act on its own authority to fight global warming, not wait for a law from Congress

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(OH) The Cleveland Plain Dealer – The Environmental Protection Agency should not wait for Congress before taking steps to control the gases blamed for global warming, supporters of U.S. greenhouse-gas regulation said Monday. The EPA hearing is the first of two public forums on the agency’s April finding that concentrations of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere pose dangers to human health and welfare — and that emissions from new motor vehicles and engines are contributing to the problem. More

Echo

Great Lakes scientists soliciting research topics from the public

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(OH) Toledo Blade – As last-minute preparations were made at the University of Toledo Monday for one of the largest biennial gatherings of Great Lakes scientists, two federal research agencies tried to get a better handle on what the public expects now that the nation’s president is from the Great Lakes region.  

The first event was a workshop held by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which studies how cancer-causing PCBs, mercury, and other pollutants in Great Lakes fish can impair human health.  

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has a Great Lakes environmental research laboratory in Ann Arbor, held the second workshop. More

Echo

Reclaiming a River

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(NY) The New York Times – A floating dredge lowered a clamshell bucket to the bottom of the Hudson River on Friday and pulled up a load of muck contaminated with PCBs – oily industrial lubricants that General Electric spent decades dumping into the river, and decades more fighting to keep there. It was a big moment – the beginning, after years of legal, scientific and political wrangling, of one of the costliest and most complicated environmental cleanups in American history. It was testimony to the power of sustained advocacy, and a tribute to everyone – private citizens, environmental groups, scientists, politicians from both parties – who had fought to make it happen. More

Echo

Commercial fishermen are coming up empty

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(WI) Manitowoc Herald Times – According to the Department of Natural Resources, commercial fishermen were able to pull more than 650,000 pounds of smelt from Lake Michigan in 2006. By 2008, that number was cut in third to just more than 208,000 pounds. So far this year, the smelt harvest has been a paltry 19,000 pounds. LeClair, who owns Susie Q Fish Market in Two Rivers, said he has a pretty good idea what has happened to the smelt in Lake Michigan. “The DNR plants all kinds of predator fish like lake trout and Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan and they don’t allow any of the commercial fishermen to harvest them,” LeClair said.

Echo

Energy standards could reap economic benefits

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(MI) The Detroit News – Legions of lobbyists in Washington are doing battle over energy and climate change plans that will have profound impacts on Michigan families. One dynamic is clear — advocates of the status quo (big oil, gas and coal companies and their Capitol Hill allies) will bang the drum about increased energy costs for the already beleaguered American consumer. It’s frightening and has a powerful populist ring to it. But it’s not true.  More

Echo

Ann Arbor seeks grants for greenbelt land

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(MI) Ann Arbor News – Ann Arbor will ask for federal Farm and Ranch Land Protection grants to help purchase development rights for five properties in the city’s greenbelt area. The potential deals are worth around $5 million. The grant applications can take months to process. But if some or all the requests are approved, they will help preserve more agricultural acreage close to the city. Some of the proposed properties are adjacent to existing greenbelt parcels, said Ginny Trocchio of the nonprofit Conservation Fund, which staffs the greenbelt program.

Wildlife

Boaters beware: State checking for zebra mussels

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Boaters beware: Beginning this weekend, officials will be out in force trying to prevent the spread of invasive zebra mussels from Lake Mille Lacs, Prior Lake in Scott County and Rice Lake near Brainerd. The Department of Natural Resources is teaming up with other law enforcement agencies, including sheriffs’ departments, the State Patrol and tribal authorities, starting Memorial Day Weekend to check boats at those heavily used lakes. DNR conservation officers, watercraft inspectors and creel census clerks will be checking boats and informing boaters to inspect, remove and drain water from bait buckets, live wells and boats before leaving water accesses. Violators face up to $500 fines. More

Air

U.S. to Offer New Mileage and Emission Standards

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(NY) The New York Times – The Obama administration will issue new national requirements for the emissions and mileage of cars and light trucks in an effort to end a long-running conflict among the states, the federal government and auto manufacturers, industry officials said Monday. President Obama will announce as early as Tuesday that he will combine California’s tough new auto-emissions rules with the existing corporate average fuel economy standard to create a single new national standard, the officials said. As a result, cars and light trucks sold in the United States will be roughly 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016. More

Wildlife

Michigan changes bear hunting rules, reduces licenses

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By Gabriel Goodwin,
Capital News Service
The Natural Resources Commission has changed bear hunting regulations for the 2009 season due to requests made by bait and dog hunters. Most of the modifications were made to help reduce conflicts between dog hunters and bait hunters, said Richard Smith, of Marquette and editor of the Michigan Bear Hunters Association’s publication “Bear Facts.”
The changes include a five-day ban on training hunting dogs and a limit on bait sites available to individuals. Other components include a reduction in licensing quotas and a slight modification in the bear season timetable. The association supports the regulation changes and Smith said the group participated in drafting them. Both dog and bait hunters came together and found a solution that will make it better for everyone, he said.