The Detroit News. May 23, 2018
Give business a say on regulations
Environmentalists are pitching a fit in Lansing over the prospect that those most impacted by state regulations may have their views considered when the rules are weighed. That does not seem such an outrage.
Despite the hysterical claims that the foxes “will be guarding the hen house,” balancing regulatory review panels with those who have to live with the rules makes perfect sense.
The Republican-led House this week approved a Senate plan to create a new environmental rules committee to weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they place on individuals and businesses.
The panel would include six voting members from business organizations, and six from environmental groups. It would take nine votes to outright reject a rule; a simple majority could send the rule back to the originating agency for adjustment.
The even membership balance hardly seems as if it would allow industry to run roughshod over the rule making process.
But job creators and businesses will have a stronger voice than they do now, and that’s only fair.
A panel weighted heavily toward activists would not have the same appreciation of what’s involved in meeting regulations. Activists are not unbiased - they can be so single-minded in the pursuit of their cause that they are unable to see the unintended consequences of the solutions they seek.
Although there is no requirement of panel members for a scientific background, the committee will be assisted by science advisers selected by the environmental and health departments.
Also approved by the House were the creation of an environmental appeal panel to make recommendations to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on permit and application disputes and an environmental science board within the Department of Technology, Management and Budget to advise the state agencies on environmental issues.
This is the right way to regulate. Rules should be thoroughly vetted by all those who are likely to be affected by them. Industry should not be shut out of the process, nor should activists be the only voices that are heard.
Protecting the environment should be a top priority of the state. But a radical approach that doesn’t consider the full impact of regulations on the state economy is not the best approach.
Adding business viewpoints to the review process will help assure rules make sense for both the economy and the environment. The House bills make sense and should become law.
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Times Herald (Port Huron). May 24, 2018
Elections board is outrageous
If you’re wondering why Americans expect only the worst from their government, consider the cowardly, conniving actions of Norm Shinkle, chairman of the Board of State Canvassers. The only item on the board’s agenda this week is the certification of the anti-gerrymandering proposal for the November ballot. Rather than do the just, reasonable and democratic thing - putting the issue on the ballot - Shinkle canceled the board’s meeting.
The petitions circulated by Voters Not Politicians struck a nerve with state voters. Using entirely volunteer circulators, the group collected 394,092 signatures to get their question on the November ballot. Election Bureau staff members have determined that the signatures are valid, are far more than the 315,652 required, and recommended that the issue be placed before voters.
Voters Not Politicians wants to take the redistricting process away from the political parties, back-room politicians and special interests and make it the responsibility of a non-partisan panel that would follow the law instead of stacking the deck for whichever political party happens to control the Legislature when districts are redrawn following a decennial census.
Political mechanics have become increasingly sophisticate - and brazen - in their gerrymandering. That is why, in the Blue Water Area, we have legislative districts drawn to ensure that the voices of voters in Port Huron, Marine City, St. Clair, Marysville and Algonac are not heard. Across the state since 2000, voters have cast more votes for Democratic candidates for the state House and Senate, but more Republicans have been elected.
Gerrymandering disenfranchises voters and protects candidates and a system that can’t succeed on its own merits.
Shinkle’s cowardice does the same thing. Canceling the meeting and ignoring the Voters Not Politicians places his party above the people of Michigan. Shinkle is a district chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.
Four hundred thousand people signed those petitions. Democracy demands he do his job and let Michigan voters decide whether they have had enough of politics as usual. The board has only one legal option - certify the proposal for the November ballot.
It isn’t the first time Shinkle has shirked his responsibilities. In 2012, he helped defeat the will of the voters by arguing one letter ’N’ on petitions to repeal the emergency manager law was the wrong size. In 2016, he scurried out of a meeting to prevent consideration of marijuana and anti-fracking petition signatures.
Michigan needs to reform its redistricting processes to make sure that all voters are treated equally and fairly.
And then Michigan needs to reform the Board of Canvassers to make sure all voters are treated equally and fairly.
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Traverse City Record-Eagle. May 25, 2018
Energy-saving efforts pay off for Crystal Mtn.
Northern Michigan’s climate is changing. The management at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa has worked for years to trim energy use and thereby lessen the business’ impact on climate change. The resort heartily deserves the industry recognition it received this month when it won a 2018 Golden Eagle Award for leadership on climate change advocacy and action.
Crystal Mountain CEO Jim MacInnes, a former electrical power engineer, has helped guide the resort toward energy-efficient operation for decades. His oft-repeated mantra is that global warming is bad for the skiing business. His efforts at the resort aim to help both the business and the planet.
Continuing efforts to conserve energy earned Crystal Mountain recognition from the National Ski Area Association and SKI Magazine, who for 25 years have presented annual awards for efforts to increase ski area sustainability.
Crystal Mountain earned the Climate Change Impact award for its dedication to overhauling the resort’s infrastructure, according to an article posted this month on SkiMag.com.
“Husband-and-wife team Jim and Chris MacInnes, CEO and president, respectively, have worked tirelessly to set an example, installing EV charging stations, moving 56 percent of the resort’s power sources to clean energy, and building a LEED-certified spa. Their current project, a renovation of the Inn at the Mountain, features an innovative closed loop geothermal heating and cooling system. Leading by example, the MacInneses have elevated Crystal’s status as an industry innovator,” the article stated.
Crystal earned the award by beating out the other two finalists, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Boreal Mountain Resort in California. Jim and Chris MacInnes also were finalists in the contest’s Hero of Sustainability category.
Ski resorts have a vested interest in combating climate change. Warmer temperatures mean less snow, and that translates into fewer ski days and reduced income.
Most ski resorts in Michigan and elsewhere have been forced to compensate for warmer winters by investing in an ever-increasing array of snow-making machinery. That is simply a business necessity.
Crystal has devoted a great deal of extra effort to battle global warming, changing its infrastructure from the ground up to use less fossil fuel and less energy in general.
The MacInneses and Crystal Mountain have shown that a small ski resort in northern Michigan can use intelligent design and hard work to outpace their competitors, even those in the skiing powerhouse of the mountain west.
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The Mining Journal (Marquette). May 24, 2018
More attention needed to prevent mass shootings
In the wake of the latest school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, there was a Keeping our Kids Safe Town Hall meeting held at Ishpeming High School on Sunday.
The town hall, hosted by state Rep. Sara Cambensy, brought together members of law enforcement, school administrators and legislators to speak - and listen - on the subject of school safety.
During the meeting, Michigan’s OK2SAY program was referenced a number of times. A record 980 tips were submitted to the OK2SAY hotline in March, with an additional 601 tips in April.
Michigan State Police Capt. John Halpin said that statistics show that 26 planned school attacks were thwarted by the OK2SAY tip line.
“Those are verified planned school attacks that were called in, 26 situations that did not occur because somebody took the initiative (to) look further into something and then called,” Halpin said. “I can’t stress that enough - we need to spread the word. Social media is something that is here, it’s not going away, and we need to use that to our advantage.”
We agree with that notion; following many of the recent school shootings, there has been a trail of suspicious behavior left behind on social media by the perpetrators involved. And while this may not stop every single incident from occuring - it’s certainly a big step in the right direction.
Halpin said the issue of school safety has risen to the level of a crisis, that better communication may be the key to solving.
“The school in Santa Fe had two armed security officers, former police officers working that day,” Halpin said. “They did five lockdown drills in the last two months and that suspect was still able to take 10 lives. We have lost more school children in 2018 than we have lost military personnel in combat and non-combat situations, more school children - this is a crisis. We’ve got to do something about it.”
Halpin is right - more needs to be done to prevent future incidents. Addressing mental health care in Michigan is perhaps at the top of that list.
“Michigan has the third highest student-counselor ratio. It is recommended that we have one counselor for 250 students, our national average is one per 481 students, and in Michigan we have one counselor for 729 students,” said Cambensy.
She said, in addition, past cuts to state mental health funding has put the system in crisis.
“In every community I go to, I hear investing in mental health care is a critical need. Costs continue to rise,” Cambensy said. “And we all know the opiod crisis remains horrifically underfunded.”
OK2SAY encourages confidential tips on criminal activities or potential harm directed at students, school employees, and schools.
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