---

Take Action

---

Demand Coal Ash Regulation

A controversial permit was recently approved for a new coal-fired power plant and others are in the works. These plants will create coal ash, which is not only toxic, but also poorly regulated. We’re still fighting to stop the new coal plants, but we need your voice to keep these toxins out of the environment.

One really important step for you to take is to speak up for coal ash regulation.

Write a letter to local newspapers today!

 

back to top

 

---

Ideas for Change: What if Hospitals Actually Served Healthy Food?

Change.org is currently running a competition where people can share ideas on how to address the challenges our country is facing. The Ecology Center’s idea was inspired by our Healthy Food in Health Care work and a campaign run by our partner organization, Health Care Without Harm.

Read about bringing sustainable menus to hospital, then vote for it and help spread the word. The top 10 voted ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to members of the Obama Administration, and then promoted to Change.org's full community of more than 1 million people.

Vote now!

 

back to top

---

Is there a Doctor in the House?

artbandito/Flickr

An estimated 70% of antibiotics used annually in the U.S. are given to animals in factory farms to compensate for the high risk of infection in confined, unsanitary conditions. This excessive use of antibiotics is making the drugs less effective in treating human disease.  That’s why we need your help to pass the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA).

If you work in the health care industry , sign on to Health Care Without Harm’s petition to protect antibiotics.

Not a health care professional? Ask veterinarians to support PAMTA or send an email to your representatives through the Union of Concerned Scientists campaign.

 

back to top

 

 

---

News

---

Down to Electric Avenue: Green Cars at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show

By Monica Patel, Policy Associate

I’m in the dark basement of Cobo Hall, riding along a faux road in a bright orange all-electric Tango made by Commuter Cars. This wasn’t the strange dream from too many long nights working on the auto project. This was part of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show’s “EcoExperience.”

Experiencing the “EcoExperience”

“Electric Avenue,” accessible by approximately two working escalators during my visit, is a surreal world beneath the main event with a ¼-mile track surrounded by trees, shrubs, flowers and even waterfalls, which made the quiet engines very difficult to hear. While the poorly ventilated basement air made it obvious that the scenery was fully fertilized, it did provide an interesting testing ground for the pollution from this collection of electric vehicle, gas-hybrid, and plug-in hybrid cars.

The Tango is a two-seater, and the driver who I sat directly behind just happened to be one of the car's designers, Bryan Woodbury, who created the car with his dad, Rick.  More on the Tango: it charges to about 80% in 10 minutes, uses lead-acid batteries, and costs about $.02 per mile to drive.  Its acceleration surprised me, and 2,000 pounds of battery under the seats helped keep the car stable around turns and, according to Bryan, the cage is also safe because it's designed in accordance with the structure required for race cars that exceed 200 mph.  Unfortunately, I doubt the Tango is appealing to most people.  Even if you’re willing to wait for a T600, it comes in a “mostly-assembled kit” that takes about 8 hours to put together, and batteries aren’t included.  Also, the width of the car from the outside is 39 inches, which, to give some frame of reference, is just 8 inches wider than the average airplane seat. All in all, I was impressed by how comfortable the ride is, but the Tango just doesn’t seem practical for the masses.

The official list of cars available to ride on Electric Avenue is here.

The second part of the” EcoExperience” is the "Alternative Energy Showcase." This 10-booth line-up, also in the basement, allows companies like A123 Systems, Johnson Controls-Saft, and Sakti3 to show videos to passersby and display fuel cells and other battery technologies.  Many of these companies have recently announced major new investments in R & D and production facilities here in the state, which is great news.
 
The Main Event Goes Fuel Efficient

Back above ground on the main floor, there was an impressive, albeit smaller than usual, domestic showing.  If small electric vehicles aren’t for you, there are plenty of great options upstairs.  In particular, we at the old Auto Project fancied the Ford Fiesta and the Chevy Cruze—two new compact cars that are expected to be best in their class for fuel efficiency.  What’s more?  They’re stylish!  And the North American Car of the Year winner, the Ford Fusion Hybrid (pictured here), was worthy of its
accolades.

Not surprisingly, the 2010 Chevy Volt created quite a buzz for its electric efficiency. (GM calls it an “extended range” electric vehicle, since it comes with a gasoline engine that kicks in if needed to recharge the batteries).  What's more, Ford announced last week that it plans to invest $450 million in Michigan for production of electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, starting with an electric Ford Focus next year. The company expects to create up to 1,000 new jobs through its electrification efforts, in part by moving battery pack production to Michigan from current facilities in Mexico.

This time, California won’t be the only state with electric cars on the road.  GM announced last week that Volts will be released in Michigan next year, too.

Irony on the Way to the Auto Show

I had to rent a car to get from the Ecology Center’s Ann Arbor office to Cobo in Detroit. I called the car rental company and asked for “the smallest, most affordable one in stock.”  Smaller cars aren’t only cheaper to rent, but they tend to be more fuel efficient, too. What did I get?  A 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. 

But wait, it’s not as bad as it sounds – this truck was a Flex-Fuel vehicle. 

So, it didn’t qualify as the “smallest, most affordable” vehicle I could imagine, but at least it wasn’t a total eco-failure … except I couldn’t find any Flex-Fuel pumps. 

One of the first things I learned when I started working on Transportation Policy at the Ecology Center is that there are “three legs to the transportation stool.”  What it means is that for carbon emissions from transportation to decrease, there are three areas to work on: vehicle miles traveled (or consumer behavior), gallons per mile (fuel efficiency), and fuel carbon (carbon intensity of fuel).  If you like equations, here you go:

The reason it’s relevant is because we seem to be making progress on every “leg” except fuel-carbon intensity.  For VMT, we’re working to reduce vehicle-miles traveled by putting in local and regional rail systems, as well as expanding transit and walking/biking options.  And as the cars at the auto show illustrate, vehicles are getting much more efficient thanks to new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and technology improvements. 

But the transportation stool falls over when someone is driving around a flex-fuel vehicle and can’t find any flex-fuel pumps to fill it. What we really need are policies that encourage the development and use of innovative new fuels which lower the carbon intensity of our transportation. This means mainstreaming alternative fuels, such as flex-fuel, as well as encouraging the use of electricity as a transportation fuel.  Adoption of a Low Carbon Fuel Standard is a policy that can help achieve this, and we’ve helped to introduce it in the Michigan legislature. 

While Michigan has become a leader in providing incentives for the production of new technologies like the advanced battery used in plug-in hybrids and fuels like cellulosic ethanol, we have not yet helped ensure that there will be a market for them. A Low Carbon Fuel Standard would create this demand by requiring that a growing percentage of these alternatives be sold each year. Additionally, the Standard would help us to keep more of our transportation energy dollars here in Michigan, while multiplying the economic benefits within our state.

The Detroit Auto Show needs to be about more than showing off the latest technology and transforming the basement of Cobo Hall. It should provide inspiration and hope for how we can rebuild Detroit’s auto industry in a way that’s economically and environmentally sustainable. Is it possible? Yes. The technology is there – but we need at least as much commitment to changing the shape of our transportation policies as we have to changing the shape of next year’s models.

To listen to Charles Griffith discuss the 2010 Detroit Show on WEMU's Issues in the Environment with David Fair, click here. To learn more about the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, visit the Clean Energy, Clean Fuels Campaign site.

 

back to top

---

Greenbelt Meets Dinner Table in Ann Arbor

Over the last decade, the Ecology Center led grassroots campaigns to enact voter-approved millages that created five interrelated land preservation programs in Washtenaw County, despite the well-funded opposition of the homebuilder lobby.  Collectively, these programs will spend over $100 million to preserve farmland and natural areas. The largest of these programs is the Ann Arbor Greenbelt Program, which is run by the City. Ecology Center Director Mike Garfield sits on the Greenbelt Advisory Commission.

For the past two years, Garfield has been pushing for farmland preservation programs to adopt “local food” farms as a priority and, in late December 2009, the City of Ann Arbor closed on the first Local Food deal in the Greenbelt Program.

It wasn’t that people didn’t want to incorporate local food into their programs. The benefits to the local economy and environment were obvious. However, the technical details were daunting, and the deals were held up by complex provisions in the easement language. The concept also presented funding problems; the federal and state matching funds that make land preservation programs work are heavily weighted toward preserving large commodity farms, growing row crops for processing and export through conventional means.

Just as the technicalities were being figured out, along came two properties where the owners wanted to sell their farms to someone who wanted to grow food for the local market. But the prospective buyers couldn't afford the fair-market price of the property, so the owners approached the Greenbelt Program. If the city bought the development rights, the prospective buyer would be left paying only one-third of the former price.  

After nearly a year of negotiations, the Frederick Farm was bought by someone who plans to raise grass-fed cattle on the land, and sell his beef and other items in a farm store on the property. One of the inspirations for his vision is the family-owned Calder Dairy in Wayne County.

The second Greenbelt-Local Food partnership, which is still in the works, would be a year-round Community Supported Agriculture Farm in Northfield Township.

 

back to top

---

Michigan Funds Renewable Energy Program for Schools

Your school may be eligible for a free energy audit (a $10,000 value!) through the Energy Works Michigan Renewable Schools Program, which is designed to save Michigan’s K-12 schools energy and money, enhance educational opportunities for students, and create green collar jobs modernizing our schools.

 

Download flyer (PDF) to learn more or visit EnergyWorks Michigan for an application.

 

 

 

back to top

 

---

New Report Says ToxicS Reform Will Save Millions of Dollars

Reform of toxics laws could save at least $150 million annually in Michigan, billions across the nation. A new report, “The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA),” highlights the strong and growing evidence that chemical exposures contribute significantly to the rise in many chronic diseases. The report finds that Michiganders and all Americans would be healthier if exposure to toxic chemicals was reduced. Michiganders could conservatively save over $150 million annually in health care costs. As the debate rages over the costs of health care and its reform, the report vividly illustrates the opportunity to prevent disease and reduce health care costs by overhauling chemicals policies.

Many families are already avoiding consumer products that contain toxic chemicals where they can, but they lack sufficient information on the majority of chemicals. Better regulation of these chemicals will reduce the incidence of disease and associated health care costs in Michigan.

“The Health Case” documents the enormous health care costs of treating cancer, learning and developmental disabilities, asthma and other diseases linked to chemical exposures. The report shows that if a new health-based federal legislative framework to safely regulate chemicals yields even a 0.1 percent decrease in the incidence of chronic diseases—a very conservative estimate—annual U.S. health care costs would be reduced by $5 billion annually. This dollar figure is based on expected health care costs projected for 2020, and assumes full implementation of the new legislation by that year.

Michigan’s children are not adequately protected from exposures to toxic chemicals that can cause cancer, or lead to impaired physical or mental development. The Ecology Center and our partners are working at the federal level to reform TSCA. TSCA has failed to require testing for possible toxicity of 60,000 chemicals that were grandfathered in for use without any health safety data, plus thousands of new chemicals that have come into commerce since 1976. But we cannot wait for federal action which is why we are working at the state level pass the Michigan Children’s Safe Products Act to give Michigan citizens the right to know what harmful chemicals are in children’s products. Read the report online at www.saferchemicals.org.

back to top

 

---