Michigan, protect drinking water

Mark Muhich is conservation chairman of the Central Michigan Group Sierra Club.3:53 p.m. EDT September 19, 2014

When Toledo, Ohio residents last August fled their city’s poisoned public water system, they drove past many of the Ohio and Michigan industrialized animal feeding operations that had fouled Lake Erie and Toledo’s drinking water.

After the previous Lake Erie algal bloom in 2011, Canadian and U.S. scientists left no doubt the source of the phosphorus feeding the cyanobacteria that causes the algal bloom that produces toxic microcystins that poisoned Toledo’s water, was the Maumee River. Applications of liquid manure from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), in the Maumee River watershed, including at least 13 in southeast Michigan contribute the most dissolved phosphorus that produces the algal fouling of Lake Erie. (http://www.ijc.org/en_/leep/report)

Since the International Joint Commission report, nothing has been done to staunch the flow of dissolved phosphorus polluting the Lake Erie watershed. Rather, huge federal agricultural subsidies have underwritten industrialized animal feeding operations, the major source of dissolved phosphorus. Why are a few hundred Michigan and Ohio CAFOs permitted to poison the water supply of 500,000 Toledo citizens?

Immediately, The Michigan Legislature should ban the high risk application of liquid manures from CAFO’s on frozen and snowy fields. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality must more rigorously apply Clean Water Standards to CAFOs that produce billions of pounds of untreated manure. Consumers can stop the CAFO fiasco by buying organic non-CAFO dairy products. Michigan has everything to lose (our water) and little to gain by subsidizing CAFOs. 

Column: Industrialized farming is ruining Lake Erie again

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on September 15, 2014 at 1:17 PM, updated September 15, 2014 at 1:28 PM

In August, when the latest algal bloom in Lake Erie fouled Toledo's water supply, many of its 400,000 residents drove 100 miles to purchase bottled water.

MarkMuhich.JPG 

Few recognized the huge animal feeding "farms" that they passed in Ohio and Michigan were the source of the pollution that fed the algae that produce the toxin that poisoned their municipal drinking water.

Dissolved phosphorus from confined animal feeding operation in Ohio and southeast Michigan produces algal blooms in Lake Erie via the River Raisin at Monroe, or as tributaries of the Maumee River emptying into Lake Erie near Toledo.

Blue-green algae, microcystis, produces the potentially lethal toxin, microcystin. Microcystin is costly to treat in public water systems, and at high concentrations impossible to remove.

Pity our Lake Erie.

Cleveland's polluted rivers caught fire in 1972 instigating the Clean Water Act. In the 1980's mismanaged municipal sanitary sewers and phosphate-laden detergents caused vast algal blooms in Lake Erie leading to international and state clean-ups.  

"Dead" Lake Erie rebounded after phosphorus reduction strategies worked then. Now the newest technology, industrialized farming, is ruining Lake Erie again.

No doubt the source of the phosphorus that feeds the algal fouling of Lake Erie that poisoned Toledo's water supply is agricultural runoff into the Maumee River.

Liquid manure applied improperly on Ohio and Michigan CAFO fields runs directly into the tributaries of the Maumee.

The question remains: Why do the great states of Ohio and Michigan allow a heavily subsidized industry, CAFOs, to threaten the water quality and health of their citizens?

State regulators, starting with MDEQ's Jackson District, administer CAFOs in Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties.

MDEQ should enforce existing clean water regulations, and close those CAFOs that have racked up thousands of violations.

Michigan and Ohio should ban the risky application of liquid manure during the frozen winter months.

Soil tests for pathogens and high phosphorus concentrations should be done twice per year instead of once every three years.

CAFOs receive multi-million dollar federal and state subsidies to build giant lagoons for the animal waste produced by the unfortunate thousands of animal that are confined there.

CAFOs in SE Michigan produce billions of pounds of untreated animal waste annually.  Without these "agricultural" subsidies" and lax enforcement of clean water standards CAFOs would close in a week.

Want a $300,000 tractor? Apply for an AG subsidy. Want to spray untreated animal waste on your fields in volumes unabsorbable? The government will pay for your pumps.

From extreme nutrient loading to virulent drug resistant pathogens Lake Erie is again the sacrificial water.

Governmental regulators are well aware of the threat to Lake Erie, but have done little to save it.

"Right to Farm" proponents and international CAFO investors have sway. Still, staring down at the chartreuse stew flowing into county drains adjacent to subsidized CAFOs, one wonders, "Is industrialized CAFO agriculture sustainable"? No way.

 — Mark Muhich lives in Summit Township and is the conservation chairman of the Central Michigan Group Sierra Club.


Column: Buy organic to help avoid pesticides

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on August 18, 2014 at 9:12 AM, updated August 18, 2014 at 9:15 AM


 

By Mark Muhich

The collapse of millions of beehives in the U.S. and around the world within the last decade is one, but not the only danger resulting from the subsidized but unsustainable industrialization of U.S. agriculture.

MarkMuhich.JPG 

The destruction of billions of bees, who pollinate most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, began soon after the introduction of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids are systemic; they permeate the crops they are designed to protect, and they are broad spectrum, meaning they kill or degrade any insects that contact them.

Neonicotinoids are stable and water soluble, meaning they can remain in the soil and water for years. The Midwest, including Michigan, exhibits the highest concentrations of neonicotinoids in the U.S. due to the heavy application of this pesticide on corn and soy fields.

These vast monocultures of corn and soy fields are planted with genetically engineered (GE) seeds designed to withstand heavy applications of herbicides, like glyphosate.

Seeds are further altered to secrete insecticides within the plants themselves.   Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO's, are found in 95 percent of all the processed foods sold in the U.S. even though GMO's are banned in 60 other countries, and are suspected of contributing to a litany of health problems from immune deficiencies to gastro-intestinal disorders, to allergies.

A majority of U.S. states are debating whether to require labels on foods that contain GMO's. Manufacturers like, MONSANTO, have mounted multi-million dollar legal and lobbying campaigns against these disclosures.

One argument for truth in GMO labeling would be that American women have 10 times more glyphosate, an herbicide, in their breast milk than European women.

Where do these billions of bushels of GMO corn and soy go? Mostly into ethanol fuel for our vehicles, and to raise animals in huge confined animal feeding operations, CAFO's. CAFO's are relatively unregulated.

CAFO's can inject steroids and antibiotics into animals to speed weight gain, regardless of the effects on public health.

CAFO's can spread huge amounts of unprocessed manure onto fields that leach into streams, on a scale that no municipality could, fouling adjacent aquifers.

Many CAFO's are owned by international conglomerates, and have caused economic havoc in hundreds of rural American farm communities.

A glimmer of hope: The fastest growing segment of the retail food industry is... organics! Walmart purchased Wild Oats the second largest organic wholesaler.

The fastest growing restaurant franchises are "sustainable" or organic, or even vegan! Though MONSANTO and Big AG are gigantic, they are not bigger than the marketplace.

Ask your grocer "Where is the organic section?" Ask the waitress for the organic menu. Let's patronize our local organic farmers.

If it is "organic", legally it cannot contain GMO's or pesticides or synthetic fertilizer or herbicides or steroids or growth hormones or antibiotics or any other poisons. Want to change the world? In one word, "ORGANIC" is the word.

- Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

Column: Consumers Energy's latest wind farm is a step in the right direction

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on July 02, 2014 at 1:56 PM, updated July 02, 2014 at 2:14 PM



By Mark Muhich

Congratulations to Consumers Energy for breaking ground on the new 105-megawatt wind farm, CosssWinds, in Tuscola County.

MarkMuhich.JPGMark Muhich 

With a completion date later this year, Consumers' latest wind farm will produce enough electricity to power 40,000 homes, shrink Consumers' carbon footprint by millions of tons of carbon dioxide and approach the state-mandated renewable portfolio standard.

All at a cost significantly below estimates only a few years ago, allowing Consumers to rescind its renewable energy surcharge.

For Saturday tours of Consumers' CrossWinds wind farm from July 12 – Aug. 30, call the Caro Chamber of Commerce, 989-673-5211.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030 for electricity generation as announced by EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, this month will be Consumers next challenge.

This is not an insurmountable goal. As a matter of fact nine states have already reduced their CO2 emissions by 30 percent, and will further reduce their CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2020. This will happen through a cooperative agreement known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

The RGGH established a "cap and trade" market place for CO2 credits. Not only have these nine states reduced their CO2 emissions by millions of tons, but they have also reduced their electricity costs, and supported growing economies.

By far the cheapest way to reduce CO2 emissions, is to produce electricity in the most efficient, cleanest way, and then not to waste it.

While wind energy is less expensive than that generated by coal combustion, Energy Efficiency and Energy Optimization cost  one- third to one-half the price per Kwatt.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy calculates that Michigan can meet the new EPA Clean Power Plan (30 percent by 2030) with energy efficiency programs alone.

Consumers offers to qualified municipalities, businesses and homeowners many incentives to reduce energy bills and increase productivity and comfort. More details at www.consumersenergy.com/eeprograms

Hopefully, Consumers will expand these energy optimization projects, and then work to re-authorize Michigan's Renewable Portfolio Standard which expires in 2015.

Since the RSP was adopted in 2007, energy efficiency and renewable power programs have pumped $2.2 billion into Michigan's economy.

As coal-fired power is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases which cause climate change, Consumers owes it to the future, and its own business model to move from fossil fuel combustion to alternative sources of power.   

Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and chairs the Central Michigan Group Sierra Club Conservation Committee. 

Stricter oil pipeline regulations are needed to protect the Great Lakes
MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on May 01, 2014 at 10:38 AM, updated May 01, 2014 at 12:18 PM

 




By Mark Muhich

The Mackinac Bridge, Michigan’s most recognizable landmark, is beloved by most everyone who sees it or travels its 8-mile length. 

MarkMuhich.JPG

Most people who love the bridge do not know that two old oil pipelines also run invisibly, 200 feet below the Straights. These pipelines were constructed 60 years ago, and are operated by the Canadian pipeline company Enbridge.

People who love the Mackinaw Bridge and the pristine fresh flow of water between its majestic towers may not know Enbridge, though they should. Enbridge has one of the worst pipeline safety and environmental records. 

Enbridge’s Lakehead pipelines carry heavy Canadian tar sands oil from Alberta through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. 

The Lakehead system has spilled more than 2 million gallons of heavy tar sand crude in the last decade, including the 1 million gallon spill into the Kalamazoo River, in 2010, is among the worst on-land oil spills.

Enbridge’s safety and maintenance record is so dangerous that the National Safety Transportation Board describes Enbridge as a “corporate culture of deviance."

What does that mean? It means that Enbridge has had over 800 oil spills since 1999. It means Enbridge knew there were large cracks in its B6 pipeline near Marshall as early as 2005. 

Worse, Enbridge was not required by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to report or even to fix the damaged pipes.

Enbridge’s Line 5, pumps 2 million gallons of Canadian heavy crude daily across the Mackinaw Straights. 

Line 5 was constructed in 1953, it is corroded, has separated from its foundations, and pumps heavy tar sands crude at volumes and pressures for which it was not engineered and a decade past its date of obsolescence. 

Would you like to see safety tests of Enbridge’s Line 5? So would Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, but the PHMSA refuses to release those tests, if they even have them.

Gov. Rick Snyder should call for an immediate inspection of Enbridge’s Line 5 in the Mackinaw Straights.

Senators Stabenow and Levin should strengthen PHMSA’s rules, as recommended in the Marshall 2010 accident report. 

Many of the federal pipeline regulations are filled with loopholes for the oil industry. 

With a large amount of the fresh water in all of North America flowing around our peninsula, Michigan should never permit itself to become a petro-waste land; our lakes mired in oil sludge and our rivers blackened by mountains of “petcoke” residue from the refining of Canadian tar sands. 

Our fresh water is Michigan’s greatest resource and needs to be protected with extreme caution. 

- Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

Take advantage of recycling efforts in Jackson County

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on April 26, 2014 at 1:45 PM, updated April 26, 2014 at 1:49 PM

By Mark Muhich

Recycling of household and commercial waste saves money, landfill space, creates jobs and is fast becoming the number one policy priority of solid waste planners in Jackson, Michigan and across the U.S.

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Gov. Rick Snyder recently proposed spending $1 million to promote recycling. Successful recycling programs need strong educational and promotional support. Michigan citizens and industries landfill $400 million annually in recyclable commodities such as paper fibers, plastics and metals.

Michigan lags far behind other Great Lakes states in our promotion of recycling and in our percentage of recyclables removed from the solid waste stream.

The solid waste stream goes to the local landfill, McGill Landfill in Jackson County, Grainger’s landfill in Ingham County, etc. where the waste piles up and frequently leaks for hundreds of years.

One day archeologists will dig through Michigan landfills and remark how wasteful and profligate we were in 2014. That is not a foregone conclusion, but may become a reality unless we start recycle more quickly.

Jackson County has a unique opportunity, now that the county incinerator has closed for good. 

We can employ recycling strategies that will reduce the volume of solid waste going to our landfills, and create hundreds of new jobs and revenues for waste haulers who recycle. 

There are many reputable trash haulers in Jackson who collect curbside household recyclables for free. In that regard our Jackson community is a leader.

Some haulers collect recyclables in bins, others collect recyclables in clear bags along with the regular weekly trash pick-up. 

Jackson County and the state of Michigan should promote recycling as it is clearly in the public interest, leave the details to the private haulers.

Less populated areas of Jackson County and across the state should investigate the recycling programs of Henrietta and Rives townships, which offer free garbage and recycling drop-offs every Saturday ... and are making a profit.

Many states already support their recycling programs and have even created college curricula and certification for solid waste and recycling planners. 

Jackson County should start writing the job description of our solid waste/recycling coordinator. 

A variety of funding mechanisms would provide the necessary revenues, i.e. a small surcharge on each ton of trash collected in the county.

The cost will be a small fraction of the premium charged by the incinerator. Recycling will reduce the volume of waste going to the landfill. 

Recycling will create four times more jobs than the incinerator did or landfilling does, at less cost, and will generate millions of dollars in new revenue for local businesses.

If we want to help our local community, our Grand River watershed, our county finances, our state prestige, then recycle. 

In Jackson County it is the easiest, and it is free! Tell your trash hauler you want to recycle, they will help, and you will know you are doing the right thing.

- Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club 

Demand testing of Enbridge Line 5

Mike Muhich  Apr. 12, 2014   Lansing State Journal

Enbridge, the Canadian oil pipeline company, is responsible for the worst on-land oil spill in U.S. history; 800,000 gallons of heavy tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River in 2010, Line 6B. Enbridge also operates a notorious network of petroleum pipelines from Alberta throughout the Great Lakes region. Since 1990, Enbridge pipelines have ruptured more than 800 times into sensitive habitats from Edmonton to Michigan. The National Transportation Safety Board which investigates oil spills, characterized Enbridge’s corporate ethics as “a culture of deviance.”

Enbridge also operates a tar sands pipeline, Line 5, which transverses the Straights of Mackinaw, directly below iconic Mackinac Bridge. Line 5 was constructed in 1953, and was never engineered for the diluted bitumen tar sands heavy crude which Enbridge pumps beneath the greatest volume of fresh water on Earth.

Gov. Rick Snyder and Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin should demand that the Petroleum and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration require testing of Enbridge’s Line 5, and make those result public. Under current PHMSA rules, Enbridge is not required to report defects in its pipelines, or even repair them! Enbridge should close Line 5 under the Mackinaw Straights, until it can prove the pipeline is safe. Or, find an alternative route that does not jeopardize our precious Great Lakes.

Also see What’s the Condition of the Pipeline Beneath the Straits of Mackinac: VIDEO

Timing of tree trimming crucial for survival of Michigan forests

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on March 17, 2014 at 8:03 AM, updated March 17, 2014 at 8:20 AM

By Mark Muhich

It is almost spring again. Among the many beautiful things vernal, also comes oak wilt, and the beetles that transmit oak wilt fungus; a lethal threat to Michigan’s majestic oak trees.

Oak wilt is spreading in Michigan. Minnesota and Wisconsin have lost hundreds of thousands of their oak trees to oak wilt. The fundamental danger to our oaks is improper pruning practices. If oaks are not pruned or damaged between the months of April and July, they remain safe from oak wilt. Therein lays the challenge.

While some utilities like Lansing Board of Water and Light or the City of Jackson have adopted best practices that prohibit pruning of oak trees during the months of April through July, others, unfortunately like Jackson’s flagship corporation, Consumers Energy, have offered an inconsistent and ineffectual oak wilt policy.

As Consumers contracts the pruning of more Michigan oak trees than any other entity, this policy is a serious problem with potential catastrophic consequences for our forests.

Consumers’ state forester, John Michael O’Conner, denies the science documented by the National Forest Service and the MDNR that beetles transmit oak wilt fungus.

Consumers’ Director of Communications for Forestry, Jon Hall, refuses to discuss the issue other than to proffer that beetle may carry oak wilt fungus. Consumers foresters say beetles feeding on fresh oak sap can transmit oak wilt but erroneously state that no oak wilt is found in Jackson County. It is.

Conversation pruning crews say they have never heard of oak wilt. These are the crews who begin this week major transmission line clearing projects in Jackson and across the state, at exactly the worst time for infecting oak trees. Consumers oak pruning policies need immediate review and revision.

If Mr. O’Conner and Mr. Hall believe Consumers corporate policy regarding oak wilt is the most scientific, the most protective of oak trees, they should reconsider.

If they think they can deny or ignore the science linking devastating oak wilt to pruning of oaks in the months of April, May, June, and July then their negligence may have negative consequences both for the oak forests and for Consumers.

If Consumers believes it is using best practices in pruning oaks in the spring and early summer, then it should consult with Michigan DNR foresters who will provide them with the best method of avoiding oak wilt: stop pruning Michigan oaks from April through July.

If Consumers thinks their right of way exempts them from local oak wilt ordinances, they should check with their legal department.

If Consumers representatives think they can dismiss public discussion of their corporate oak wilt policy with bluster, quick tempers and arrogance, then they misunderstand not only the science of oak wilt, and the significant threat of oak wilt, but they underestimate the reverence with which Michiganders regard our oaks.

Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

Promoting good farming practices through Farm Bill is a positive for the environment


MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on February 10, 2014 at 8:19 AM, updated February 10, 2014 at 8:26 AM


By Mark Muhich

When President Obama signed the 2014 Farm Bill on the Michigan State Campus recently he gave U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, his pen and should have given her a Medal of Honor for shepherding the nearly $1 trillion bill through Congress.

MarkMuhich.JPGMark Muhich

As persuasive as Stabenow must have been, the prospect of $8 per gallon of milk, had the Farm Bill failed, probably convinced the Congress even more.

Most of the savings in the Farm Bill result from the termination of “direct payments” to farmers, whether they planted crops or not. Instead the new Farm Bill offers a crop insurance program which subsidizes 60 percent of the farmers’ crop insurance, but pays out only for crop failures.

Most national environmental groups supported this change. Sen. Stabenow unflinchingly tied these crop insurance policies to good farming practices as defined by the term “Conservation Compliance.”

Conservation Compliance means simply that farmers adhere to good farming practices: preserving wetlands, maintaining buffers along sensitive rivers, creeks and ponds, using “no-till” to avoid soil and water erosion and supporting native flora and fauna.

Farmers are free to cultivate their fields as they wish, but farmers who seek to insure their crops with federally subsidized premiums will need to agree to these Conservation Compliance principals.

Numerous federal farm programs have long been available to farmers who decide to protect some of their most sensitive acreage prone to erosion. Many of these programs can be accessed through County Conservation District and Farm Service Agency offices in most Michigan counties.

Federal programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program will pay farmers up to 100 percent of the cost of restoring or protecting their most vulnerable and often least productive lands. Farmers can receive a $100 per acre signing bonus for joining the CRP, plus receive annual rental payments for as long as 25 years.

Previous to the Stabenow/Cochran Farm Bill, under the “direct payment” strategy, farmers plowed sections of wetlands and prairies that had never been cultivated and probably never should have been. Over the last decade 1.6 million acres of marginal farmland have been withdrawn from the national Conservation Reserve Program.

Last year in Michigan, 22,000 acres of CRP land were tilled. Hopefully this rapacious race to erosion and water pollution will end with the Stabenow Farm Bill.

Michigan has the second most diverse agriculture in the U.S. Agriculture, including hundreds of smaller specialty crops, is Michigan’s second biggest industry.

High crop prices are good, but to ruin the soil and water surely ruins the future. Farmers know this and they always have.

Farmers who want to protect that special low corner of their farms, where all the turtles and snakes reside, or prairies where the butterflies and bees sip can receive CRP payments.

The Conservation District and Farm Service agents in your county would be glad to talk with you.

- Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club  

Gov. Snyder should take Michigan into a new era of responsible renewable electricity production

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 

on December 10, 2013 at 8:47 AM, updated December 10, 2013 at 8:48 AM 


By Mark Muhich

When the most profitable corporation in the United States accepts a tax on carbon emissions then every other sector of the American economy would take note.

MarkMuhich.JPGMark Muhich

ExxonMobil, with profits of $7.9 billion in the last quarter of 2013, has begun setting aside funds for an “inevitable” tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

Many leading U.S. corporations have calculated the volume of carbon dioxide they produce, their “carbon footprint.” Worldwide, over 3,000 leading corporations, including Consumers Energy, have reported their carbon releases to an international nonprofit group, carbon disclosure project, CDP.

As well, many institutional investors, with assets of over $87 trillion, rate companies that accurately assess their carbon emissions and have a business model to reduce them.

These large institutional investors formulated the questions sent by the CDP to the world’s largest corporations, with the view, that carbon emissions were a growing physical threat to the economy, and a giant liability to their future operations. The Harvard Business Review called the CDP “the most powerful NGO (non-governmental organization) that you’ve never heard of”.

Investors equate good carbon disclosure scores with good management. Worldwide, the regulation of carbon emissions clearly is written on the wall of catastrophic climate change. President Obama’s Climate Change Action Plan calls for a reduction of U.S. carbon emission of 17 percent by the year 2020 (compared to 2005 volumes of CO2), and 80 percent reduction of CO2 by 2050.

If those numbers sound abstract, they are not. ExxonMobil and other energy sector giants realize their exposure to coming carbon regulations will be huge.

Electric utilities burning fossil fuels, predominantly coal, such as Consumers, remain the biggest emitter of CO2. Now that the US Supreme Court has decided that CO2 is an air pollutant, the business model dramatically changes: Generate more electricity, emit less CO2.

If that sounds counterintuitive, it is not. While the value of the Standard & Poor’s 500 has increased 14.3 percent and U.S. gross domestic product increased 1 percent in the past four years, carbon emissions have decreased 2.9 percent. Carbon reduction strategies are integral to future business success, according to CDP.

Generating more electricity while producing less CO2, developing green technologies and emphasizing energy efficiencies, transitioning from fossil fuels, now, and not in 20 years, will be the benchmark for utilities’ success in the near and long term. Any company that derives 50 percent of its power from coal combustion faces enormous challenges. These challenge can be met, but not without a “systemic change” (CDP) in energy generation.

Lawsuits brought by northeastern U.S. states to mandate stricter air emissions from mid-western states including Michigan, and especially pertaining to coal-fired power plants, are appearing before the EPA and before the Supreme Court, and have good chances of success.

EPA estimates that 34,000 pre-mature deaths are caused by mid-western coal-fired power plants. That is a tragic and unnecessary cost to an energy policy soon coming to its end.

Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

Signs of corporations planning for emission 'tax' is a positive signal

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion

By MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on December 10, 2013 at 8:47 AM, updated December 10, 2013 at 8:48 AM


By Mark Muhich

When the most profitable corporation in the United States accepts a tax on carbon emissions then every other sector of the American economy would take note.

MarkMuhich.JPGMark Muhich

ExxonMobil, with profits of $7.9 billion in the last quarter of 2013, has begun setting aside funds for an “inevitable” tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

Many leading U.S. corporations have calculated the volume of carbon dioxide they produce, their “carbon footprint.” Worldwide, over 3,000 leading corporations, including Consumers Energy, have reported their carbon releases to an international nonprofit group, carbon disclosure project, CDP.

As well, many institutional investors, with assets of over $87 trillion, rate companies that accurately assess their carbon emissions and have a business model to reduce them.

These large institutional investors formulated the questions sent by the CDP to the world’s largest corporations, with the view, that carbon emissions were a growing physical threat to the economy, and a giant liability to their future operations. The Harvard Business Review called the CDP “the most powerful NGO (non-governmental organization) that you’ve never heard of”.

Investors equate good carbon disclosure scores with good management. Worldwide, the regulation of carbon emissions clearly is written on the wall of catastrophic climate change. President Obama’s Climate Change Action Plan calls for a reduction of U.S. carbon emission of 17 percent by the year 2020 (compared to 2005 volumes of CO2), and 80 percent reduction of CO2 by 2050.

If those numbers sound abstract, they are not. ExxonMobil and other energy sector giants realize their exposure to coming carbon regulations will be huge.

Electric utilities burning fossil fuels, predominantly coal, such as Consumers, remain the biggest emitter of CO2. Now that the US Supreme Court has decided that CO2 is an air pollutant, the business model dramatically changes: Generate more electricity, emit less CO2.

If that sounds counterintuitive, it is not. While the value of the Standard & Poor’s 500 has increased 14.3 percent and U.S. gross domestic product increased 1 percent in the past four years, carbon emissions have decreased 2.9 percent. Carbon reduction strategies are integral to future business success, according to CDP.

Generating more electricity while producing less CO2, developing green technologies and emphasizing energy efficiencies, transitioning from fossil fuels, now, and not in 20 years, will be the benchmark for utilities’ success in the near and long term. Any company that derives 50 percent of its power from coal combustion faces enormous challenges. These challenge can be met, but not without a “systemic change” (CDP) in energy generation.

Lawsuits brought by northeastern U.S. states to mandate stricter air emissions from mid-western states including Michigan, and especially pertaining to coal-fired power plants, are appearing before the EPA and before the Supreme Court, and have good chances of success.

EPA estimates that 34,000 pre-mature deaths are caused by mid-western coal-fired power plants. That is a tragic and unnecessary cost to an energy policy soon coming to its end.

Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

 

Innovation is transforming auto and energy markets while keeping an eye on the environment

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on October 23, 2013 at 8:54 AM, updated October 23, 2013 at 9:03 AM

muhich.jpgMark Muhich

Slide into a new, plush, nearly indestructible car seat, turn the key, crank-up the engine. Probably you are touching a Johnson Controls product. 

With research and manufacturing facilities in Plymouth and in 150 other countries, Johnson Controls creates cutting-edge technologies for auto interiors, car batteries and electronic controls for buildings. 


With $42 billion in revenue in 2012, and 168,000 employees, their futuristic business plan with a keen eye on the environment looks on track.

Building efficiency “is going to be huge”, one JCI executive emphasized. Buildings consume 60 percent of the electricity, and 40 percent of all energy produced. 

Headquartered in a platinum LEED certified building in Milwaukee, Johnson Controls has retro-fitted landmarks like the Empire State Building, paying for the entire project with cost savings in only two years.

Johnson Controls’ new lithium-ion batteries include sold-state mother boards and telemetry. Shrunk in size from a trunk-full to a regular 12-volt battery, innovative lithium batteries have increased the fuel efficiencies of hybrid cars by 20 percent. 

JCIs’ battery facilities in western Michigan have made Holland “the battery capital of North America.” JCI engineers predict that the next 10 years of battery innovation will outpace the last 100 years of battery development

“Make no mistake, federal fleet standards are driving battery innovation,” said one engineer during a press tour of JCI’s Plymouth campus. Even so, U.S. auto efficiency standards are the lowest of any nation, 54.6 mpg by 2025. Ironically, during our press conference, the EU announced the postponement of its new CAFÉ standard of 60 mpg until 2025. “This will only delay mass adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles,” commented a JCI executive.

The National Research Council has determined that U.S. car efficiency standards could realistically achieve 74 mpg by 2050, reducing U.S. oil consumption by 80 percent. 2050 is also the year scientists predict irreversible climate change will take hold if we do not drastically slash our air emissions from burning fossil fuels.

To increase market share, fuel efficiency, and driver safety, designers are turning to futuristic light-weight seats that not only coddle and warm but also wrap passengers in curtains of airbags and electronics. 

JCI conducts customer research in every auto market in the world. More luxury vehicles will be sold in China than in Europe and the U.S. combined. Chinese executives want their car seats to plug into their computers, like apps. Women want the safest seats for their babies, stylish interiors, and a convenient place to stash their purses (one-half of U.S. auto purchases were made by women last year).

Driving into the future: Here comes the electric-powered autonomous self-driving car, not in 50 years but in 10! Innovation is transforming auto and energy markets. It is heartening to see so many smart young ambitious Michigan people drawing plans for tomorrow’s cars and buildings. Whether we stave off climate disaster is another question but one that folks like the bright people at Johnson Controls may help answer.

 - Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is a member of the Jackson Sierra Club

Is it logical to build fossil-fueled generating plants when renewables could be as reliable and cheaper?

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on October 07, 2013 at 7:44 AM, updated October 07, 2013 at 7:45 AM







muhich.jpgMark Muhich

Climate change is no joking matter: "Global climate change poses a serious threat to our national secur-ity … resulting in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives," warned the Pentagon in a suppressed memo during the last Bush administration. Around the world many future wars will be waged because of global climate change. Is it too late to avoid a climate change apocalypse?

Last week, Michigan’s own Energy Information Administration lauded the state’s energy producers, including Consumers Energy, for meeting the Renewable Portfolio Standard (though Michigan’s has the lowest RPS of any state), generating 10 percent of our electricity with renewables, predominately wind. Wind energy now costs less than fossil fuel generated electricity. 

The EIA stipulated that Consumers and other electricity generators could achieve an even higher rate of renewables, at least 30 percent by 2025. Local permitting difficulties, and the “balkanization of our national power grid” pose obstacles. Still, the technology exists to generate unlimited amounts of electricity by wind, across the two grid systems that connect Michigan to the surrounding 19-state mid continental region.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week implemented President Obama’s Climate Action Plan by announcing new rules for carbon dioxide emitted from new coal and gas-fired electricity generators. 

Since electricity generation accounts for 40 percent of global warming gases, it is logical and imperative to reduce our CO2 emissions from electricity generation. The new technologies of carbon capture and sequestration recommended by the EPA are expensive, and untested on an industrial scale. Is it logical to build fossil-fueled generating plants when renewables could be as reliable and cheaper?

Climate change poses difficult choices for electric utilities and for environmentalists. An example, Consumers has proposed a new 750MW combined cycle gas-fired generating plant in Genesee County. Costing $700 million, the Thetford Plant would replace seven outdated coal-fired power plants. Progress, as coal combustion creates double the CO2 emissions produced natural gas combustion. Natural gas prices are low now, but volatile. And “fracking” natural gas is highly controversial. Natural gas combustion still emits huge volumes of CO2. Can we afford these emissions?

The International Panel on Climate Change released last week its most exhaustive report on the effects of global climate change. The IPCC findings should alarm anyone who cares about life on Earth as we know it. 

The increased concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and the oceans are "unprecedented." There is a direct relationship between CO2 in the atmosphere and rising global temperatures. 

Minimizing future temperature increases to 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit until the year 2100 will require immediate and monumental reductions in current CO2 emissions. 

At the current rate of CO2 emissions, we will exceed the stable carrying capacity of greenhouse gases, 1 trillion tons of carbon, in only 40 years. Does it make sense to invest huge resources and even more precious time in fossil fuel technologies or, must we shift to renewable sources of energy, like wind, even as the grip of climate change takes hold?

- Mark Muhich lives in Summit Township and is chairman of the Sierra Club Central Michigan Group.

 Guest column: With the closure of the Jackson County incinerator, focus should shift to recycling

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 
on August 14, 2013 at 11:30 AM, updated August 14, 2013 at 11:36 AM


MarkMuhich.JPGMark Muhich

By Mark Muhich

With the imminent closure of Jackson County’s incinerator less than two months away, Jackson County elected officials should proceed with all deliberate speed to write a new solid waste plan for the County. Already two months have passed since County Commissioners voted to notify VEOLIA, the French owned company that operates the incinerator, that its contact would be terminated.

Now that the incinerator is finally closing, Jackson County would do well to follow its original solid waste plan, circa 1988, as registered with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and support the financial and environmental benefits of recycling the majority of our community’s trash. Recycling fifty percent of our trash by 2020, is doable, and will provide substantial financial and environmental benefits far into the future.

Writing the goals and duties into the job description of Jackson County’s new Recycling Coordinator/Solid Waste Planner, should be the top priority for the County’s elected officials and administrators. Jackson County should employ our new Recycling Coordinator, before, and not after, the County’s Solid Waste Plan is rewritten.

When the incinerator closes any number of problems/possibilities will arrive on our County officials’ desk: Will the volume of trash directed to the land fill, owned and operated by Waste Management drastically increase? Waste Management’s contract with Jackson County expires in April 2014; how can WM help Jackson County recycle? How will the closure of the incinerator impact the County’s “flow control ordinance” which mandates all trash in the County must cross the incinerator’s tipping scales , etc. etc?

Recycling is one of the best answers to all the above questions. Jackson County should hire an experienced recycling coordinator before, not after, it makes important and necessary solid waste policy decisions.

Laudably most private trash haulers in Jackson County already offer “free curb-side’ pick up of recyclables. How many customers use this service? Without a County-led educational effort about recycling’s advantages over any other solid waste management strategy, Jackson County’s recycling rates will remain disappointingly and expensively low. Hiring a new Recycling Educator and Solid Waste Planner for Jackson County will be an economical and effective first step.

If Jackson County can dun its residents with the highest trash fees in the Mid-west United States to pay to incinerate our trash, Jackson County can pay a recycling director $50,000 a year to achieve the exact same reduction in volumes of trash going to the landfill.

A number of respected solid waste experts are ready and willing to help Jackson County officials design our new solid waste policy, and for free. Jackson County should take advantage of the closure of the incinerator, rewrite our solid waste plan, and avoid huge future liabilities associated with burning our trash, and make recycling the short, medium and long term destination for our garbage.

—Mark Muhich, chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club

Guest column: Jackson County incinerator numbers don't add up

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinionBy MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot opinion 

on July 23, 2013 at 10:30 AM, updated July 23, 2013 at 11:15 AM


By Mark Muhichmuhich.jpgMark Muhich

During a recent County Commission workshop, Administrator Michael Overton presented some eye-popping revenue numbers for the County Incinerator, equaling $8 million. All of those dollars pay for the operation of the incinerator, expensive repairs of its boilers, or are transferred to France, headquarters of VEOLIA, the operator of the incinerator. None of those dollars accrue to the residents of Jackson County.

Jackson County residents pay huge premiums to incinerate our trash, most of which could be recycled, in order to generate electricity and steam that no one including the Michigan Department of Corrections agrees to purchase.

Petitioners for the continued operation of the incinerator might ask the pubic if they are willing to pay an extra two hundred fifty dollars per household to keep the incinerator open. Are there unemployed folks in Jackson whose company and jobs could have been saved, with a similar yearly infusion of the $4 million the County dedicates to the incinerator?

While every single job is really a person, a family, and not a number, petitioners for the incinerator should explain why their jobs are more important than the new jobs that will develop when recycling finally becomes the new solid waste plan for Jackson County. If 30 jobs are lost when the incinerator closes, hopefully by the end of 2013, then 300 new jobs in recycling can be created in their place.

Somehow, Jackson County has instituted a "flow control ordinance" that mandates all trash in our County goes to the incinerator. Incinerating trash is the most expensive and most environmentally damaging solid waste management option. And Jackson residents are paying the price; triple most trash tipping fees in other counties and states in the Mid-west. Every solid waste expert in the country I've spoken with thinks Jackson County's solid waste plan is crazy, unhealthy, fiscally unsustainable, and needs to be dumped.

Is it ironic that after Jackson County has spent hundreds of millions of dollars subsidizing the incinerator, Commissioners cannot find $250,000 to de-commission it?

One selling point for the incinerator in 1983, was that it would reduce the volume of trash going to the landfill, by 90 percent. However, only one half the trash delivered to the incinerator can be burned, so, 45 percent of Jackson's trash by volume is diverted from the landfill. Comparatively, if, 50 percent of Jackson's trash in recycled then,50 percent of Jackson's waste stream will be diverted from the landfill, at a fraction of the present cost, and with much better public health benefits.

Last month, County Commissioners voted to give VEOLIA notice to cancel operations at the incinerator in six months. Some Commissioners may be buying time for the incinerator. But the clock is ticking. Responsible Commissioners should consider that in five months the incinerator will close, that recycling is highly preferable to incineration, and that millions of dollars in hidden flow control taxes should be returned to the local economy.

Mark Muhich is the Chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club 

 It's official: Jackson County incinerator to shut down at end of September

Lisa Satayut| Lsatayut@mlive.comBy Lisa Satayut| Lsatayut@mlive.com 
on July 12, 2013 at 9:54 AM, updated July 12, 2013 at 9:56 AM

JACKSON, MI –The Jackson County incinerator, or Resource Recovery Facility, will cease operations at the end of September.

When the Michigan State Department of Corrections ended a long-term contract with the state to purchase steam and electricity at $2.4 million a year, it pretty much sealed the fate of the facility.

But, county officials had hoped the state would reconsider the purchase of electricity in an effort to keep it open.

That didn’t happen.

The steam and electricity generated by the facility power the state prisons in Jackson.

“The state has indicated they are not going to purchase steam or electricity. They believe they can produce steam for less than we can and buy electricity from Consumers (Energy) that costs less and is more consistent than we can provide,” Jackson County Administrator Michael Overton said.

In June, MDOC Spokesman Russ Marlan said the electricity provided by the facility is not consistent.

“Consumers (Energy) has consistent electricity coming in. We would look at any proposal from the county, but if the cost is the same and Consumers is more reliable, then we’re probably going to stay that course," Marlan said. 

The MDOC purchases about 50 percent of electricity from the county and 50 percent from Consumers Energy.

“We will be prepared to turn the power off by the end of September,” Overton said.

When the facility closes, most likely flow control will cease to exist, too. The ordinance states that all county garbage must stay in the county. Haulers would be free to take their load to any landfill they choose.

“I believe flow control is dependent upon the continued operation of the facility. Therefore when it closes, I believe the flow control will end,” Overton said.

As for the facility, it will be owned by the state.

“In the contract the state owns all leaseholder improvements,” Overton said.

The county is leasing the land for the facility for $1 per year. It is a 100-year lease with 50 years left.

Check back to Mlive.com/Jackson throughout the day for updates

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It's time to close the Jackson County Resource Recovery Facility, Mark Muhich column

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot guest opinion By MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot guest opinion 
on June 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM, updated June 10, 2013 at 12:16 PM

By Mark Muhich

JACKSON, MI --“Politics?" When County Administrators blame “politics” for the refusal of Michigan Department of Corrections to pay 40 percent premiums for power generated by Jackson County’s “Resource Recovery Facility” are they inventing their own definition of the word?

“Politics” means “of the people." Sometimes it could mean deceive the people, or gouge the people, or even sicken the people. Since the incinerator was commissioned in 1984, “politics” also means Jackson County citizens pay the highest trash fees in the Midwest, endure some of the highest childhood asthma rates in Michigan, and achieve some of the worst recycling levels in our state.

“Politics?"The director and chief deputy director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, who have made the proper call in rescinding any further purchases of electrical and steam power from the Jackson incinerator are from Jackson County. Maybe Daniel Heyns and Randy Treacher, respectively, harken back to the old bed rock Republican ideal: no stupid deals?

And, burning Jackson’s municipal trash is a stupid idea. Burning trash is the most inefficient form of combustion, creating ten times more CO2 than coal combustion; it discourages recycling, promotes waste, impairs the public health, costs Jackson residents millions of dollars in extra garbage fees, has bilked the Department of Corrections hundreds of millions of dollars over the past four decades, and, sends any residual profits to France, the home of Veolia, the operator of the incinerator.

Veolia officials have long maintained that the incinerator breaks down six times per year. During those down times, the DOC must generate its own steam and power with redundant infrastructure. Veolia  seems to miscalculate their breakdowns by a factor of 10, interrupting power generation six times per month, not six times per year, according the MDOC.

Jackson County Commissioner John Polaczyk has concluded that the Jackson incinerator should be closed within six months. County Administrator Mike Overton recently recommended that Jackson County terminate its agreement with Veolia. Hallelujah! Commissioners and Chairman Steve Shotwell should join their colleague Polacyk and vote on Tuesday, June 18 to close the incinerator. For, each and every month after the Department of Corrections contract expires, Jackson County will be paying Veolia nearly one hundred thousand dollars monthly for doing absolutely nothing.

Jackson County can use this opportunity to rework our solid waste plan, encourage recycling and reduce by 50 percent our trash going to the land fill. All that at a fraction of the cost of operating the incinerator. This is the time to be creative with our garbage. Burning garbage is a notorious policy. Jackson County can join the modern solid waste movement, like Ann Arbor and Lansing, bringing big benefits for our community. Closing the incinerator is the necessary great first step.

 — Mark Muhich lives in Summit Township and is the conservation chairman of the Central Michigan Group Sierra Club.

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Column: In Jackson and across the nation, we need to take note of climate change milestone

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot guest opinion By MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot guest opinion 
on May 22, 2013 at 8:00 AM, updated May 22, 2013 at 8:13 AM

By Mark Muhich

What could be the most significant date in world history? How about May 9, 2013? That's the date when carbon dioxide concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere reached 400 parts per million for the first time in three million years, according to geochemical analysis.

What were the weather conditions like three million years ago? Warmer by nearly six degrees. There were no glaciers, forests had retreated from deserts, and the sea level was 75 feet higher than today. Since NASA scientist Jim Hansen sounded the alarm about global climate change caused by carbon dioxide 30 years ago, we have failed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We have not even reduced the rate of increase of carbon dioxide emissions: 500 parts per million here we come?

Dispute over European Union regulations of international air travel may within months cause a trade war with the U.S. and with China. The EU has long sought to curb air emissions of jet flights over it territory, as aviation emissions contribute disproportionately to climate change.

And speaking of real wars, our own Pentagon in secret reports beginning more than a decade ago warned policymakers that global climate change “poses a serious threat to America’s national security.” And, “Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in war and natural disaster.”

Without doubt, the cause of global climate change and its disastrous consequences is due to human activity. The Industrial Revolution, fueled by fossil fuels, in barely 300 years has boosted carbon dioxide concentrations to levels that in geological time required millions of years to achieve. Still, with the danger of climate change imminent, and the cause certain, carbon dioxide emissions resulting from combustion of fossil fuels, our political and corporate leadership proceed with business as usual.

Even the current conservative Supreme Court determined that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant and could be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet the Obama administration has issued few rules for new and existing power plants, which emit the majority of carbon dioxide. The U.S. should lead the charge against climate change, because Americans per capita produce more than double the carbon dioxide of any other nationality.

Hopefully, a national energy policy and rules to reduce carbon dioxide will come before it is too late for the world as we know it. Then, Jackson’s own Consumers Energy, which incinerates huge volumes of coal and pumps 18 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually into the atmosphere will either move to new technologies to generate electricity, or pay staggering surcharges for carbon dioxide pollution.

Consumers is aware of these potential risks, receiving good ratings from the Carbon Disclosure Project. Any corporate policy short of moving away from fossil fuels is very shortsighted for Consumers. If some of the Consumers people “who make all the electrons move” don’t know that 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide is an historic warming signal, then it is much later than we think.

— Mark Muhich is a Summit Township resident and Central Michigan Group Sierra Club conservation chair. To read more of his columns, click here.

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April 22, 2013  Earth Day

Kalamazoo MI

For Immediate Release

Contact: Mark Muhich markmuhich0@gmail.com 517 787 2476

 

Over 60 residents of Southwest Michigan gathered in front of U.S. Representative Fred Upton’s Kalamazoo district office to celebrate Earth Day 2013. A variety of locally elected officials and environmentalists urged Upton, the very powerful Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to promote a new sustainable energy plan for the U.S. and abandon the disasterous policies of subsidizing giant fossil fuel and nuclear energy corporations.

Upton’s 6th Congressional district is home to the most dangerous nuclear power plant in the country, Palisades, and is close to the site of the worst on land oil spill, the ENBRIDGE spill, which pumped over one million gallons of toxic Canadian tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River.  Coincidentally, huge fossil fuel and nuclear corporations are the biggest contributors to Rep. Upton’s campaign coffers.


 
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