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More up-to-date victories are catalogued on our Bell Ringer's page.
FOR OUR CHILDREN'S HEALTH
MEC worked tirelessly for years, both publicly and behind the scenes with Lansing power brokers, until Gov. Granhom decided in 2006 to reduce dangerous mercury emissions from Michigan power plants by 90 percent by 2015. The momentum from that February decision continued throughout the year, with legislative victories banning the sale of some mercury-containing medical products and a federal decision to recover and recycle mercury from automobile switches.
MEC established a science-based
environmental education
initiative designed to help elementary school teachers integrate
environmental matters into existing curriculum.
MEC worked with advocates to force the state to issue a public
health advisory regarding sportfish contamination that protects
children and women of child-bearing age.
MEC promoted the state’s first review of pollution standards
to assure protection of children’s health from contaminants.
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FOR OUR WATER
MEC worked with one of the broadest and most effective environmental coalitions in modern times to achieve a major breakthrough in Lansing in 2006: Passage of the first meaningful water conservation laws in Michigan’s 169-year history. Signed into law by Gov. Granholm in March, the five new laws:
- Guard streams from the harm caused by large-scale withdrawals,
- Require the development of water conservation practices by major industries, and
- Strengthen our defense against Great Lakes water diversions and exports.
MEC
and our member groups won $125 million in environmental bond
funding for clean water, pollution prevention, and lead hazard
abatement programs.
And MEC exposed abuses of law and policy in Michigan’s
wetland conservation program.
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FOR CLEANER ENERGY
MEC and its allies worked hard behind the scenes to steer a new state energy policy toward clean, renewable power and efficiencies. The hard work paid off in early 2007, when the governor received recommendations from the Public Service Commissions that included a 10 percent renewable energy requirement for electric utilities by 2015 and at least $68 million to promote energy efficiencies annually.
MEC
forced a major, dirty old coal-burning power plant in southeast
Michigan to convert to cleaner-burning natural gas through a
cooperative effort and legal action.
MEC authored and won passage of a $5 million low-interest loan
program to help small businesses prevent toxic pollution.
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FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT
MEC and several of its allies hosted and Environmental Justice Tour in late 2006, highlighting for policy makers the environmental justice disparities in Detroit, Dearborn, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Saginaw.
MEC
protected the public’s right to know about pollution by
leading the fight to change a “polluter secrecy law.”
MEC wrote and helped enact the Community Pollution Prevention
Trust Fund, an endowment funding local programs to detect and
reduce the use and discharge of toxic substances.
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FOR LAND STEWARDSHIP
MEC staff worked with local activists and national organizations to orchestrate a campaign against a proposal to mine in the UP’s spectacular resources. Such mining, now on hold due to a cover-up of important inspection documents at the Department of Environmental Quality, could generate battery-acid strength waste laced with heavy metals.
MEC
launched land stewardship training, education, and policy initiatives
to save farmland and open spaces and to fight urban blight and
suburban sprawl.
MEC killed “takings” legislation that would have gutted
laws protecting wetlands, sand dunes, and other vital and sensitive
land use resources.
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