Echo

Pro/con: Ending ethanol subsidies will slash food prices

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(MN) Duluth News Tribune – In 2005, a coalition of Midwestern corn growers, giant agribusinesses, environmental groups and politicians anxious to assuage public concern over dependence on foreign oil joined together to mandate the addition of ever increasing amounts of ethanol to our gasoline. This was never a good idea, but we now know it is even worse than we imagined as we’ve learned more about its impact on our environment, our transportation infrastructure and our economy. More

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Ruling on trout boosts U.P. mining project

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(MI) The Detroit News – Federal officials dealt a setback to opponents of a proposed nickel mine in the Upper Peninsula Monday by declining to place a trout species that spawns in the area on the endangered species list. Conservation groups looking to block Kennecott Minerals Inc. from mining 160 acres of state land near Marquette had hoped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would designate the Coaster Brook Trout for federal protection. That designation may have forced Kennecott to revise its permit applications seeking state approval for the project. But three years after the Sierra Club and Huron Mountain Club petitioned for the trout to receive endangered species status, the federal government announced Monday it would not do so. More

Air

Automakers, Obama Announce Mileage, Pollution Plan

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(NY) The New York Times – President Barack Obama wants drivers to go farther on a gallon of gas and cause less damage to the environment — and be willing to pick up the tab. Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for cars and trucks, as well as require a 35.5 miles per gallon standard. Consumers should expect to pay an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016, officials said. More

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.