Michigan Messenger Blog

Enbridge stops cleanup work

Enbridge, the company that spilled at least 800,000 gallons of tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River system last year, has announced that it is suspending efforts to scrape the remaining submerged oil from the river bottom.

UPI reports that the company said it made a “seasonal decision” to stop cleanup for the rest of the year.

The EPA recovered about 18,000 barrels of oil from the surface. Officials said it was unclear how the remaining oil would affect the environment because there is no spill with which to compare the Enbridge leak.

For more than a year, crews have worked to get oil removed from the bottom of the waterways. Heavy crude, unlike conventional crude, sinks and mixes in with the sediment.

According to Enbridge crews have recovered most of the oil.

An approximately thirty mile long stretch of the Kalamazoo River has been off limits to the public since July 2010 because of the oil contamination.

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House says it will delay health exchange creation bills

The House Republican leadership says it will delay approving the creation of a statewide health insurance exchange, in part to await the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of the health care reform law which mandates the creation of the exchanges.

Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clark Lake) tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot, “There’s no interest in acting quickly on this particular bill.”

The legislation passed the Michigan Senate — which has a supermajority of Republicans — last week. Gov. Rick Snyder, also a Republican, has called on the legislature to pass the bills by the end of the year.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the case brought by states — including Michigan — about the constitutionality of the law passed nearly two years ago. A ruling is expected in the summer of 2012, in the heat of the race for president.

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Maddow on the Ford Field prayer rally

Rachel Maddow had a segment about last weekend’s prayer rally at Ford Field that includes video footage of organizer Lou Engle saying more crazy and extremist things. Video below the fold.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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TransCanada agrees to reroute Keystone pipeline

TransCanada, owners of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, have agreed to reroute the pipeline to avoid the Nebraska Sandhills, a particularly sensitive ecosystem.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Sen. Mike Flood, speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, announced on the floor that TransCanada Corp. would move the pipeline to another area of the state. Sources in Nebraska said it would likely be located farther east, nearer an existing Keystone pipeline that already carries Canadian tar sands oil into the U.S…

“We were at the Capitol building, they were in special session, and Speaker Flood stopped everything and said that everything was over, and TransCanada has voluntarily moved the pipeline out of the Sandhills of Nebraska,” said Todd Cone, a rancher who has been one of many battling the route through central Nebraska.

The Nebraska legislature was considering legislation that could have forced the project to be rerouted.

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Granholm: Tax breaks, wage concessions don’t help attract business

Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm appeared on CNN with Fareed Zakaria recently and pointed out that during her administration, all the tax breaks and wage concessions offered to businesses didn’t keep them from leaving for other countries.

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Occupy Detroit prepares office space, hotel, warehouse

Members of Occupy Detroit have worked with local businesses to secure a multi-story office building, a store front for sign-making, a warehouse, and a renovated 50-unit hotel that will serve as housing for protesters.

Occupy Detroit spokesperson Lee Gaddis said the group plans to pack up the Grand Circus Park encampment and move into donated space where it will be able to focus on political work.

“The weather is really crummy … and going to get crummier,” Gaddis said. “Our primary concern is the safety of the occupiers. Not everybody is prepared to do winter camping.”

The groups permit for camping in the park expires today, and occupiers are ready to move one, though they will stick around long enough to fulfill their promise to clean up the park completely, Gadis said.

Unlike the occupations in Oakland, and elsewhere, Occupy Detroit has enjoyed consistently positive relations with law enforcement.

“We have good relationships with the Detroit police and the Dept. of Homeland Security, nobody from Occupy Detroit has been brutalized or harassed by police,” Gaddis said. “Police here have more important things to do than harassing people for exercising their constitutional rights.”

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Faith leaders protest prayer event

A controversial prayer rally took place at Ford Field Friday and Saturday but many mainline Christian leaders protested the event, calling out organizers for their anti-Muslim, anti-gay and even anti-Catholic views.

The Detroit Free Press reports:

Organizers for Engle’s prayer event were expecting 50,000 to 70,000 people to show up, but the crowd size was markedly smaller than that, with much of the stadium unfilled. They also were heavily targeting African Americans in Detroit, but most of the crowd was white.

“Their message is not one of inclusion; it’s of hate,” said Jennifer Teed of Detroit, who opposed Engle’s prayer event. “I don’t see how that’s religious.”

She held up a sign that read, “All are people” and “Standing on the Side of Love.”

The protest against Engle featured Catholic, Baptist and Methodist pastors from Detroit, as well as gay rights and women’s activists. Chanting “Stop the hate” and “Spread the love,” the protesters said the prayer rally inside the stadium promotes division and intolerance.

“God did not call us to hate,” said the Rev. Charles Williams of Historic Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit.

Organizers of the rally have made many statements of an extreme nature in the past, including claiming that a member of the Michigan Senate gave them access to the chambers at the Capitol to declare a divorce decree between American and Baal.

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TransCanada admits few permanent jobs from Keystone

Defenders of the Keystone XL pipeline have argued that the project is important for creating up to 20,000 new jobs in a struggling economy, but TransCanada, which owns the pipeline, said late last week that the number of permanent jobs would only number in the hundreds.

This is video of an interview on CNN with Robert Jones, VP of the pipeline for TransCanada:

Critics have argued that even the number of temporary construction jobs for the project have been inflated by the company.

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Enbridge may gain from Keystone XL delay

The State Department’s decision to spend more time considering a permit for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline may boost the outlook for a competing pipeline planned by Enbridge, owners of the pipeline that burst in Calhoun County last year.

Over the summer Enbridge – the largest supplier of oil to the U.S. — announced plans to link existing and new pipelines into the “Monarch” line. The northern tier of the project would move tar sands crude and oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota between the Chicago area and the oil storage hub in Cushing, Okla. The southern portion of the project involves a new line to move oil from Cushing to refineries around Houston.

By avoiding a new international crossing, this project could expand imports of tar sands crude without a State Dept. review. Enbridge says the project could be complete by the end of 2013.

Bloomberg reports that the State Dept. decision to order further study of alternative routes for the Keystone XL may help Enbrige win more customers for its new pipeline.

“Refineries can’t wait however-many months to make decisions about where they’re going to get crude,” Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, told Bloomberg.

The Keystone delay, “definitely improves the prospects of the [Enbridge] project going forward,” John Auers, senior vice president of Turner, Mason & Co., a Dallas-based pipeline and engineering consultancy, said in an e-mail yesterday.

Producers decide whether to commit to shipping their crude on new pipelines based on the fees charged and their perceptions of whether the project will get built, Auers said.

Last year’s Enbridge pipeline rupture in Marshall spilled at least 800,000 gallons of Canadian tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River system and helped build opposition to TransCanada’s project which is slated to cross the sensitive Ogallala aquifer.

The Kalamazoo River remains closed to the public amid continuing cleanup of submerged oil.

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Senate limits governor’s power on environmental issues

A new law that prohibits the governor from adopting environmental rules that are stronger than federal standards will harm Michigan’s ability to protect the Great Lakes, environmental groups say.

This week the state Senate joined the House in approving such legislation.

Many environmental groups spoke out against the move:

“Federal water quality standards are designed to be the floor below which states are not allowed to drop,” said James Clift, of the Michigan Environmental Council. “This law assumes that rules written in Washington for waters in other states are good enough to protect our Great Lakes. They are not.”

“This legislation was not written by people who feel a stewardship responsibility to the Great Lakes, which contain almost 20 percent of the planet’s fresh surface water,” said Alexis Blizman of the Ecology Center. “We believe Michigan’s waters are best managed by Michigan. Not by Washington, D.C. bureaucrats.”

“Today’s action would eliminate Michigan’s ability to move quickly and proactively to deal with threats like the 1970s Lake Erie crisis,” said Dr. Grenetta Thomassey of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council. “Water protection is a responsibility shared by the state’s governor, the legislature and the people of Michigan. We must not voluntarily give away control over our signature resource.”

If the Senate version is approved by the House and the governor signs it, the new law will go into effect in February.

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DOE panel calls for stronger fracking regulation

A Department of Energy advisory panel that was criticized by environmentalists for having too many members connected to the oil and gas industry has issued a second report calling for stronger regulation of hydrofracking by state and federal agencies.

Pro Publica reports:

A federal energy panel issued a blunt warning to shale gas drillers and their regulators today, saying they need to step up efforts to protect public health and the environment or risk a backlash that stifles further development.

“Concerted and sustained action is needed to avoid excessive environmental impacts of shale gas production and the consequent risk of public opposition to its continuation and expansion,” said members of the Energy Department’s Shale Gas Subcommittee in a draft report released today…

The report calls on the EPA to revise a proposed rule on air emissions to include limits on methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and criticizes recent moves by the agency that have hindered efforts to get better data from the oil and gas industry, a crucial step toward improving controls.

The report also concludes that joint federal and state efforts to ensure water quality are “not working smoothly” and urges the EPA to move unilaterally to improve oversight as it carries out a study on potential effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water.

The panel’s recommendations are not binding, but Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said they carry significant weight.

The NRDC is calling on President Obama to issue an executive order forcing agencies to implement the panel’s recommendations.

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EPA finds fracking chemicals in Wyoming groundwater

An ongoing EPA investigation of possible contamination from hydrofracking in Wyoming has found significant amounts of cancer-causing fracking chemicals in a freshwater aquifer in that state.

ProPublica reports:

A pair of environmental monitoring wells drilled deep into an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds and at least one chemical commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, according to new water test results released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The findings are consistent with water samples the EPA has collected from at least 42 homes in the area since 2008, when ProPublica began reporting on foul water and health concerns in Pavillion and the agency started investigating reports of contamination there.

Last year – after warning residents not to drink or cook with the water and to ventilate their homes when they showered — the EPA drilled the monitoring wells to get a more precise picture of the extent of the contamination.

The Pavillion area has been drilled extensively for natural gas over the last two decades and is home to hundreds of gas wells. Residents have alleged for nearly a decade that the drilling — and hydraulic fracturing in particular — has caused their water to turn black and smell like gasoline. Some residents say they suffer neurological impairment, loss of smell, and nerve pain they associate with exposure to pollutants.

While the EPA has not claimed certainty that the contamination came from fracking at this point, the presence of 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE), a chemical used in fracking, and the lack of contamination with nitrates and fertilizers that would indicate an agricultural source, suggest a link.

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Nebraska may pass bill on Keystone pipeline

The Nebraska legislature, meeting in a special session to deal specifically with the Keystone XL pipeline that would cross their state, may be on the verge of passing a bill that could give the governor control over the route that pipeline would take.

On Wednesday, the Natural Resources Committee voted 7-1 to send a bill to the full legislature that would require all oil pipeline companies to have the routes of their pipelines certified by a state panel headed by the governor before starting construction.

It is an open legal question whether the passage of such a bill would be legally viable, since the approval of the project is up to the federal government at this point.

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House passes anti-bullying bill

The Michigan House of Representatives passed an anti-bullying measure this afternoon that does not include the religious exception language that was in a similar bill passed by the Senate last week. The bill passed 88-18.

The House bill, like the Senate bill, is unenumerated — that is, it does not include a list of groups that are routinely subjected to bullying or reasons why kids are often bullied, such as religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and so forth. Advocates of strong anti-bullying legislation have long favored an enumerated bill. Emily Dievendorf of Equality Michigan issued this statement about the bill:

“Equality Michigan applauds the Democratic legislators in the House that pushed for the addition of the strong language that would actually protect our students from bullying. Unfortunately, the pressure to pass just anything squashed their ability to make this bill something effective that we can celebrate. We have the case studies and data to know how to create a strong bill the first time. Oregon recently had to amend its anti-bullying law after 10 years when data showed that the students most bullied in Oregon schools, African-American and Native-American students, had not experienced relief from its anti-bullying policy. Michigan has lost at least ten students to bullying related suicide since 2001. We cannot afford to waste any additional time on a version of the anti-bullying bill that neglects to address this devastating and debilitating problem in our schools. Equality Michigan calls on the Michigan Senate to put partisan politics and political ideology aside in favor of standing up for all Michigan students.”

Rep. Kate Segal voted for the bill but said it should only be a first step:

Today, this bill is not a cause for celebration, because it is only one very small step. I hope my colleagues will join me in using this bill only as a starting point and to keep working until we can get real anti-bullying legislation — with real teeth –that helps every child in Michigan.

The actions taken by my Republican colleagues in the Senate last week made Michigan the target of ridicule and mockery in the news and on comedy programs across the country. With the eyes of the entire nation upon us, why aren’t we using this opportunity to pass real, strong and comprehensive anti-bullying laws, instead of passing the weakest acceptable bill possible.

All of Michigan’s children deserve to be protected from bullying and while this bill lets us talk about how we have finally caught up to 47 other states–states that had more foresight and more courage–it will still leave us lagging far behind when it comes to protecting our kids.

While I voted yes on House Bill 4163, because I recognize that we needed to pass something, this bill is not nearly enough. I will continue fighting for strong anti-bullying laws that protect all of Michigan’s children and provide real protections against cyber-bullying.”

SB 137, the Senate bill passed last week, will not come up for a vote in the House. That bill is essentially stuck in committee. This House bill, HB 4163, will now go to the Senate for passage on its own. Whether Republican Senators will seek to put the religious exception language into that bill by amendment remains to be seen.

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State Dept. delays Keystone XL decision

As some observers predicted earlier this week, the Obama administration has decided to delay a final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election.

The Hill reports:

The Obama administration will announce Thursday that it is reevaluating the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a move that will likely delay a final decision on the project until after the 2012 election, sources briefed by the administration said…

Sources briefed by the administration said the decision to consider a new pipeline route would likely delay a final decision on the pipeline until after the election. The administration initially planned to make a decision on the project by the end of the year, but the State Department recently acknowledged that the timeline could slip.

Environmentalists who are opposed to the project are praising the decision and hoping that it kills the project entirely. Bill McKibben, who organized the massive protests around the White House over the last few weeks, said in a press release:

A done deal has come spectacularly undone. The American people spoke loudly and today the President responded, at least in part. Six months ago, almost no one outside the pipeline route even knew about Keystone XL. One month ago, a secret poll of “energy insiders” by the National Journal found that “virtually all” expected easy approval of the pipeline by year’s end. As late as last week the CBC reported that TransCanada was moving huge quantities of pipe across the border and seizing land by eminent domain, certain that its permit would be granted … We take courage from today’s announcement. It’s an unspoken salute to the power of people who come together in the open to demand action; it gives us some clues about how to fight going forward.”

But he also warned the Obama administration that the ultimate goal of the project’s opponents remains the same, saying, “The president should know that nothing that happened today changes our position–we’re unequivocal in our opposition. If this pipeline proposal reemerges from the review process intact we will use every form of nonviolent civil disobedience to keep it from ever being built.”

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Occupy Atlanta mobilizes to block foreclosure of policeman’s home

This week the Occupy Atlanta protesters found a way to protest economic injustice that may build allies within the local law enforcement community.

On Monday about two dozen activists with the group moved their tents to the suburban lawn of a home where a local policeman and his family are facing eviction.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the group mobilized after learning that the five-member family may lose their home because the bank that holds their mortgage has decided to foreclose rather than allow them to refinance.

“This family is the perfect example of the fraud going on in the mortgage and banking industries,” said Latron Price, one of Occupy Atlanta’s organizers. “We plan to shed light on the foreclosure issue and we look to make a stand here.” …

Tim Franzen, one of Occupy Atlanta’s organizers, said the group had been seeking a good story to highlight the problems with the mortgage industry. He said Rorey’s husband, a law enforcement officer with DeKalb County, sent Occupy Atlanta an e-mail detailing their plight last week and within a few hours they formulated a plan to bring attention to the foreclosure.

“What I envision is a model of protest coming out of this,” Franzen said. “We plan to develop an occupy community in this neighborhood and maybe create something that can be duplicated nationally.”

Police officers have been pitted against Occupy Wall St. activists in many cities where they have been ordered to enforce rules against camping in public spaces, and in some well-publicized instances they have used force against demonstrators.

By working together to illustrate the problems of the mortgage industry Occupy Atlanta and the Rorey family may help build goodwill and common ground.

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Durbin tries to block protections for coal ash-dumping car ferry

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) is asking federal officials to protect Lake Michigan from coal ash pollution from the S.S. Badger car ferry which operates between Luddington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the operators of the coal-powered car ferry operators hope to avoid U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules against dumping coal ash in the lake by placing the vessel on the national list of historic and cultural landmarks, and that a National Park Service advisory panel voted to approve the ferry’s nomination on Wednesday.

Coal ash contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other health-damaging heavy metals and the S.S. Badger dumps at least 509 tons overboard each year.

In letters to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Sen. Jay Rockeller (D-WV), who chairs the committee that oversees the Coast Guard, Durbin argued against exempting the vessels from EPA rules.

“We cannot let Historic Landmark status be used to evade the federal regulations we rely on to protect public health and the environment,” Durbin wrote to Salazar, who has the final say on the Badger’s application. “This Great Lake cannot take any more toxic dumping, no matter how historic or quaint the source may be.”

Last Friday the U.S. House approved an amendment to the Coast Guard budget that would allow the S.S. Badger to continue its current mode of operating for the life of the vessel.

Durbin asked Rockefeller to remove that amendment from the Coast Guard budget when it comes before his committee.

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State Dept. considering new Keystone route

While the Obama administration deals with massive protests, including thousands of people surrounding the White House earlier this week, the State Department is apparently considering the possibility of rerouting the pipeline around the most environmentally sensitive areas.

Reuters reports:

The State Department is considering rerouting TransCanada Corp.’s proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline to avoid ecologically sensitive areas of Nebraska, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

The State Department has been weighing issues raised in public meetings and talks with officials in six states that would be affected “including whether to consider a rerouting of the Keystone XL pipeline away from an environmentally delicate area of Nebraska,” the official said.

A decision to consider an alternative route would require an environmental impact study on the new segment of the pipeline, the official said. Such a move could delay a final decision on whether to go forward on the pipeline.

The Nebraska legislature is holding a special session and one of the bills they are considering is one to demand that the pipeline be rerouted around the Sand Hills and the Ogalala aquifer, which provides nearly all the fresh water in that state.

Rerouting the pipeline could well mute opposition in Nebraska but is unlikely to satisfy environmental critics of the pipeline, whose arguments are based on the effect of tar sands oil on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rather than on localized effects.

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Romney struggles to define auto bailout position

With the Republican presidential hopefuls participating in a debate about jobs and the economy just a few miles from the city of Detroit, it was inevitable that the candidates would be asked about the federal bailout that saved GM and Chrysler — and Mitt Romney in particular.

Romney’s father was a former auto company CEO and former governor of Michigan, so when he wrote a Wall Street Journal column in early 2009 with the headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” and argued against federal money being used to restructure those companies, it drew a good deal of criticism from business, labor and politicians of both parties from Michigan who supported the bailout.

During Wednesday’s debate, Romney tried not to back away from that position:

He said: “My view with regard to the bailout was that whether it was President Bush or whether it was President Obama (approving financial relief), it was the wrong way to go.”

But one of his most prominent Michigan supporters illustrates the fine line Romney is trying to walk on the issue:

Saul Anuzis, Michigan’s Republican National Committeeman and a Romney backer, said the challenge for Romney and other Republicans who advocated for a managed bankruptcy is explaining what they mean by bankruptcy.
“If you ask the average voter today … they assume the company is going to be closed,” Anuzis said. “And that’s what the Democrats are saying, which is really a blatant lie. … Bankruptcy traditionally is a form of reorganization.”

But in fact, that is exactly what the Obama administration did — used a managed bankruptcy to restructure GM and Chrysler, after which they have emerged once again as profitable and growing companies. So the difficult task for Romney is to argue in favor of a managed bankruptcy and still argue that Obama was wrong for guiding the companies through a managed bankruptcy.

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Keystone I pipeline shut down again

Keystone I, the first phase of TransCanada’s pipeline system that brings tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to southern Illinois, has shut down once again after mechanical problems.

Reuters reports that there is “no word yet on the extent of the problems affecting the 591,000 barrel a day pipeline.”

This comes as controversy continues to grow over the approval process for the second phase of the project, Keystone XL, which will continue the line all the way to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Keystone I has been in operation for less than two years. Despite assurances from TransCanada that the project would be environmentally safe, the first phase has leaked 14 times in the United States since it opened and at least that many times in Canada as well.

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