It’s been a banner week for Michigan utility companies.
First, with the help of our Attorney General, Bill Schuette, utilities got a free pass to continue polluting our air and water from the Supreme Court. In a 5-to-4 decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “It is not rational, never mind ‘appropriate,’ to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.” Translated: Human lives are not worth the amount of money that utility companies could easily afford to pay to clean up their pollution. Wouldn’t want those poor corporate CEOs to miss out on their bonus checks this year.
Then, Senator Mike Nofs announced his energy plan for Michigan, another massive giveaway to utility corporations. His plan would essentially let utilities off the hook for taking steps to stop polluting and protect our air, water, and health. It would completely dismantle the progress that Michiganders have made in building a sustainable clean energy economy.
We’ve worked together for years and years to create protections that keep Michigan pure, but now they’re being taken apart by destructive industries that are out to write their own rules and have no qualms about sacrificing our health and our environment for short-term profit.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can work together to leave our parks, our rivers, and our Great Lakes better than we found them. We need to remind our elected leaders that we put them in office and we will hold them accountable for their decisions. Call Senator Mike Nofs at 517-373-2426 and A.G. Bill Schuette at 517-373-1110 and tell them to do what we elected them to and put people over corporate polluters.