Lame Duck Fallout in Michigan

What a group of last-minute laws mean for Michigan’s environment

Four bills state legislators passed during its lame duck session have transformed Michigan’s environmental policy.

One sweeping new law prevents the state from enacting environmental standards that are stricter than federal standards, except in certain cases. Another rolled back wetlands regulations. A third made it harder for state regulators to react to scientific developments when measuring hazardous contamination. A fourth bill enabled the construction of a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline at the Straits of Mackinac, a move decried by opponents who have fought to have the 66-year-old pipeline removed.

“WRITTEN BY SPECIAL INTERESTS”

For environmentalists in northern Michigan, the passage of the laws marks a particularly dark time for the state.

Christopher Grobbel, a former DEQ staffer and owner of Grobbel Environmental & Planning Associates, an environmental and land use planning firm in Leelanau, says he was appalled that the legislature would vote to reshape the state’s environmental policy and undo, during a lame-duck session “at the 12th hour, literally, on the way out of the door, ”decades of laws that were often crafted through bipartisan compromise and consensus.

Michigan has a history of strong environmental regulation, Grobbel says. “This is really a major step backward.”

Dave Dempsey, who served as an environmental advisor to former Gov. Jim Blanchard and is a senior advisor at Traverse City-based FLOW, a Great Lakes advocacy group, says the laws mark “the biggest steps back in environmental politics in Michigan in decades.”

Environmental protection has historically been important to Michigan citizens, Dempsey says. There was a long track record of conservation and environmental stewardship that crossed party lines and led to pioneering measures to protect the state’s natural resources.

That started to change in the 1990s, Dempsey says, as politics became more […]

Full article: Lame Duck Fallout