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Welcome to the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club!

 
The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club is your statewide voice for the nation's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.  Our members are some 20,000 of your Michigan friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. Our current conservation priorities include:

• Stopping the Michigan Coal Rush
  
• Moving to a Clean Energy Future
• Protecting the Great Lakes and the Health of our Communities 
• Safeguarding Michigan's Wild Places

Stopping the Michigan Coal Rush

Sierra Club is working to stop the 8 currently proposed new and expanded coal plants in Michigan.   At least 8 new or expanded coal fired power plants are being proposed in Michigan today, making our Great Lakes State one of the coal industry’s top targets. Unfortunately, Michigan is going the wrong way:  70 proposed coal fired power plants around the country have been denied or withdrawn in the past few years as scientists, investors and state officials have recognized the enormous environmental and financial risks posed by these proposals. 

Weak regulations and expected federal limits on the emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide have led to a rush to get coal plants approved in Michigan now, even though the state doesn’t need any additional electric generating capacity for many years to come. Coal fired power plants are the largest single source in Michigan of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming. Coal plant emissions add mercury to our fish, cause asthma, and increase acid rain. And coal mining has devastating impacts on communities, habitat and water quality.  Please download our petition to Governor Jennifer Granholm asking her to act to regulate greenhouse gases from coal plants and contact Lee Sprague or Jan O'Connell to volunteer to help.

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Moving to a Clean Energy Future

Sierra Club has been working for a Clean Energy Future in Michigan, and legislative action on September 18th moved Michigan towards that goal.  When Governor Granholm signs the energy package Michigan will become the 28th state in the nation with a renewable portfolio standard, will require energy efficiency in both electricity and natural gas, and will require integrated resource planning by electric utilities.  During the 20 months of debate on this legislation, Sierra Club volunteers spent hundreds of hours lobbying legislators, sent thousands of letters, emails and made hundreds of phone calls, and wrote letters to the editor to urge support for a strong clean energy future.  The energy package is a first step for Michigan, but as Legislative Director Gayle Miller explains there is still much to do.

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Cleaning our Water, Protecting our Communities

Our Great Lakes State has a lot at stake when it comes to water quality.  Right now Sierra Club’s Michigan Water Sentinels are working on two of the biggest threats to our waters, and you can help with these efforts.  Download our Summer 2008 Mackinac newsletter, which focused on our Great Lakes.

1)      Large scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs or factory farms) are hurting water quality in Michigan’s lakes and streams, including the Great Lakes. These massive factory farms produce more sewage than small cities, but they don’t have to follow the same clean up rules. Sierra Club is working to document pollution violations and to get enforcement of clean water laws to stop the toxic waste from these operations. We’re also working to strengthen our laws to prevent pollution from these facilities. You can help Sierra Club clean up CAFOs in Michigan and track the pollution from these facilities – contact CAFO Water Sentinel Lynn Henning or Rita Jack to find out more.  

2)      Metallic mining is making a resurgence in the Upper Peninsula, and Sierra Club’s Michigan Water Sentinel volunteers are monitoring water quality in streams near the sites of new proposed sulfide mines to provide critical documentation of current clean water quality. (Defending precious resources from contamination depends on knowing what’s at stake.)  You can help with this vital effort – contact Rita Jack to learn more.

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Safeguarding Wild Places

Michigan  has the largest State Forest system in the country. And recently the Department of Natural Resources started developing plans that will determine what lands are protected, how habitat is managed, where to locate recreational areas, and how much logging occurs (and where). With the timber industry demanding increased logging, the growing idea of using wood for biomass energy, plus competing pressures on the land for recreational and economic development activities, Michigan’s state forests are facing a critical crossroads.

Your knowledge and concern for Michigan’s public forests can help move our forests in the right direction and protect our natural heritage. Do you know a special place on Michigan’s state forest lands that deserves special protection?  You can help to nominate and work to protect high conservation value forests by contacting Sierra Club Forest Policy Specialist Marvin Roberson here.

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