03/29/2026
MARCH 2026
FROM THE CHAIR
So, we’re at war, again. No provocation, no imminent threat, no explanation to the American people, or resolution from Congress…the president, in cooperation with Israel (or because) decided to attack Iran. Result: gas prices skyrocketing, deaths of Americans and Iranians as well as millions of civilians in the Middle East exposed to toxic air from burning oil.
Also, in some countries the growing awareness that fossil fuels don’t bring security and resilience. Maybe, just maybe, renewable wind and sun would be better?
A lesson our flawed president is incapable of learning.
For example, one of March’s downers was a New York Times’s story March 23rd telling us that the Trump administration will pay the French energy giant TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion to abandon its plans to build wind farms off the East Coast. In exchange, it would invest that money in oil and gas projects in the United States. Idiotic. Maybe our TV president doesn’t watch weather reports that he can’t impact with his big black Sharpie.
But Yale Climate Connection’ meteorologists do, and Bob Henson and Jeff Masters report: “In one of the most astounding global weather events of the century thus far, hundreds of cities across the Western and Central United States and northern Mexico have endured their hottest March weather on record over the past week – and in some cases, heat that’s never been observed prior to May,” they wrote. “Multiple analyses have found that the extent and intensity of this heat wave would be virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.”
Then there was another New York Times story, March 17th, on the Thwaites Glacier of Antarctica. Yes, I think you’ve anticipated where this is going: It is “melting at an alarming rate. If it breaks apart entirely, it could push up global sea levels by two feet over the course of several decades, affecting tens of millions worldwide.”
Okay, we’ve got some time on that last one, but not if we don’t get environmentalists or at least more informed elected officials in office.
How about another example, like the insane Trump love of coal, ordering aging, costly coal plants to stay open, and then allowing them to poison more lakes and streams by permitting greater emissions (SEE: TRUMP EPA TO WEAKEN RULE LIMITING HARMFUL MERCURY, AIR TOXINS FROM COAL PLANTS).
Let me squeeze something positive in for a moment, remember that Michigan is the only state that doesn’t have a septic code? One was introduced in the state senate, and it would be nice to see it succeed (SEE: LEGISLATION TO ESTABLISH A FIRST EVER STATEWIDE SEPTIC CODE IN MICHIGAN). It also means we have to get Democrats elected this year, and if the debate between state senate candidates Chedrick Greene and Jason Tunney tell us anything it’s that Republican Tunney and his “anti-regulation” GOP don’t get it.
Back to more bad stuff.
In addition to keeping aged coal plants going, a similar mind set inflicts both political parties around aging nuclear plants. The decommissioned Palisades Nuclear Plant appears to imitate our past nemesis, the Midland Nuclear Plant (deceased) in slopping up public money as well as endangering the public (SEE: MICHIGAN’S RISKY PALISADES REACTOR: MILESTONE OR MILLSTONE?).
Finally, we’re approaching the growing season in Michigan. Ever since I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, I’ve had it in for pesticides. Bad enough that these toxic materials kill flora and fauna indiscriminately, the science points to their impact on humans, too. And that becomes more personal when I hear from folks. Last, month I received a call from a woman in Gladwin. She was jogging on her property, near a trout stream, when she was sprayed by a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) truck suppressing roadside “w**ds”. She suffered nausea and other difficulties and got no satisfaction from elected or road commission sources. I received another call from her recently and she read from the local paper, the Gladwin Record & Clarion a notice by MDOT, notifying the public it would be spraying Roundup in Bay and Arenac counties in addition to Gladwin-- be aware. Nationally, a story from Chemical and Engineering News caught my attention (SEE: FARM BILL AND TRUMP’S GLYPHOSATE ORDER MAGNIFY PESTICIDES’ ‘WATERSHED MOMENT’). Remember, glyphosate is Roundup.
We can celebrate that the chemical giant Syngenta says it will stop making the highly toxic paraquat, but unfortunately smaller companies will pick up the slack, it needs to be banned (SEE LAST WORD).
If change is going to happen, we have to educate elected officials or elect environmentalist politicians. Let’s go to work, we have several elections coming up and I hope you participated in one of the NO KINGS demonstrations. Be careful in your spring cleaning, get your Bay County no spray requests in, and….stay vigilant!
Terry
TRUMP EPA TO WEAKEN RULE LIMITING HARMFUL MERCURY, AIR TOXINS FROM COAL PLANTS
FROM: Valerie Volcovici, Reuters, February 20, 2026
WASHINGTON The Trump administration announced it will roll back clean air regulations limiting mercury and hazardous toxins from power plants, saying it will boost baseload energy, while public health groups warn it will harm America's most vulnerable.
President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has said that easing the pollution standards would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of data centers used for artificial intelligence.
Environmental groups have said that weakening standards for mercury, a neurotoxin that can impair babies' brain development, and other air toxics will lead to higher health-related costs.
SUPREME COURT REJECTED CHALLENGE TO REGULATIONS
The 2024 Biden-era Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, which updated standards set in 2012 under President Barack Obama's administration, had still been in force after the Supreme Court declined a challenge from a group of mostly Republican states and industry groups calling for a suspension of the regulations.
Those rules would have reduced allowable mercury pollution from coal plants by 70%, emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and other toxic metals by two-thirds and result in health cost savings of $420 million through 2037, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
The EPA said that the 2012 MATS rule provides “an ample margin of safety to protect public health,” and that the 2024 additions carry more costs than benefits.
In the final ruling published on Friday, the EPA said reverting to 2012 standards would result in cost savings of between $69 million and $78 million per year over the 2028 to 2037 time frame.
Environmental and health groups have countered that public health costs of reverting to the less stringent standard dwarf any cost savings.
"The updates passed in 2024 were going to...achieve $300 million in additional health benefits," said Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association. "They’ve protected pregnant women, infants and children from harmful exposure and saved thousands of lives each year."
AGING PLANTS FACE HIGH MAINTENANCE COSTS
Research firm Energy Innovation found that aging coal plants still face rising costs from higher maintenance expenditures. From 2021 to 2024, it found that coal plant costs rose 28%, including three of the plants that would be affected by this repeal.
Utilities had been phasing out aging coal-fired generators, which are major sources of mercury and carbon emissions, but Trump has promised to reduce barriers to meet rising electricity demand from AI and data centers.
He declared an "energy emergency" last year to justify moves to keep open aging coal plants that have been set for closure and exempt aging coal plants from key air regulations.
Last spring, he invited coal plants to request by email to be exempt from MATS regulations for two years as part of his administration's energy emergency. Sixty-eight plants were granted exemptions.
Last week, the EPA announced it was repealing the "endangerment finding," which gave the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and the White House directed the Pentagon to purchase power from coal plants for military use.
The National Mining Association on Friday praised the move, saying the Biden-era standard led to coal plant closures.
"With power demand growing rapidly from the AI revolution, coal generation will be a critical part of the comprehensive energy strategy required to affordably and reliably meet it," the NMA said in a statement.
Coal-burning power plants are among the largest sources of hazardous air pollution, including mercury, lead, arsenic, and acid gases, as well as major sources of benzene, formaldehyde, dioxins and other organic hazardous air pollutants.
Coal plants generate less than 20% of U.S. electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The Union of Concerned Scientists said the EPA's final rule would also discard requirements for coal-and oil-fired power plants to provide operational transparency around their emissions.
“In attempting to justify this indefensible broadside against public health, EPA Administrator [Lee] Zeldin is now actively hiding from the public massive health harms associated with this repeal," said Julie McNamara, associate policy director of climate at the UCS.
LEGISLATION TO ESTABLISH A FIRST EVER STATEWIDE SEPTIC CODE IN MICHIGAN
FROM: Scott Brown, Michigan Waterfront Alliance
Introduced by MI State Senator Sam Singh (D-28) and referred to the MI Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, if passed into law, Senate Bill 771 would establish Michigan’s first-ever comprehensive framework for the oversight and on-going maintenance of septic systems (on-site wastewater treatment systems).
As the only state in the United States without a statewide septic system code, the language of Senate Bill 771 will serve to modernize Michigan’s substantially outdated approach to septic system over-sight and help protect the health of communities and the tens of thousands of freshwater resources that serve those communities.
The steadily escalating environmental and public health threat in Michigan is derived from the that fact that approximately 20%, or 280,000 of the 1.4 million septic systems that were constructed during the residential building boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s throughout Michigan are now failing.
The issue of failing septic systems has been exacerbated by the fact that many Michigan homes and their now antiquated and often dysfunctional septic systems were built prior to the construction of sewer systems that now serve most towns and villages.
The significance of the problem in Michigan is also illustrated by the fact that between calendar years 2013 and 2014 an estimated 5.7 billion gallons of untreated (raw) sewage from failing septic systems flowed unabated into our inland lakes, river, streams, and groundwater aquifers.
The language of MI Senate Bill 771 recognizes that while properly functioning septic systems are an effective and affordable wastewater solution, failing septic systems pose a serious risk to public health, safety, and to Michigan’s freshwater resource inundated environment.
If passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Whitmer, Senate Bill 771 would require the MI Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to develop a uniform performance-based standard defined Statewide Sewage Code for both conventional and alternative septic systems within three years.
MICHIGAN’S RISKY PALISADES REACTOR: MILESTONE OR MILLSTONE?
FROM: Roger Rapoport, Detroit Free Press Op-ed, March 2, 2026
Just six months after receiving its first operating license for a nuclear reactor, Holtec International’s“ unprecedented milestone in U.S. nuclear energy” may be turning into a millstone.
Holtec is attempting the first-ever reopening of a nuclear plant permanently closed for decommissioning – the Palisades reactor, near Lake Michigan in Van Buren County, which was shut down in 2022.
Restarting this reactor has always been a risky bet. Twenty-one months into the project, Holtec has announced delay after delay while continuing to draw vast public subsidies to restart a plant that a far more experienced operator shut down. As management fails to submit required documentation, costly nuclear fuel sits idle at Palisades, and Holtec seeks exceptions from Nuclear Regulatory Commission for work on a reactor so noncompliant that no government agency would even consider approving its construction today.
As the project stutters, it's becoming clear that Washington and Lansing lawmakers are gambling Michigan’s reputation on the dangerous restart of the wrong reactor.
Delays and exceptions
After multiple delays, stretching back to June 2024, Holtec, a New Jersey company with zero nuclear reactor operating experience, is back in line at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking forgiveness for unpermitted welding on the 55-year-old Palisades reactor pressure vessel containment head.
This ask, likely to take many months to review, comes after a late 2025 NRC amendment to the Palisades fire safety plan to comply with current government reactor standards. It also follows a controversial NRC exemption related to resleeving approximately 1,400 cracked tubes at the plant’s ancient steam generators, as well as a unique October 2025 accident in which a worker fell into the reactor vessel and had to be fished out.
These new safety challenges at Palisades could threaten financing of the entire atomic energy industry. Continued Holtec startup delays could also crush the Trump and Whitmer administrations’ plans to subsidize two more Holtec nuclear plants at the Palisades site with a startup $400 million grant. Michigan previously approved two $150 million grants for the project, and the U.S. Department of Energy authorized a separate $1.5 billion loan. Anticipating a green light, Holtec has already clearcut vast acreage to make room for these first-of-their-kind reactors.
Kevin Kamps at the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear estimates the tab for state and corporate welfare at this Covert Township reactor, as well as the Big Rock Point reactor site near Charlevoix, could top $16 billion. This underscores why Holtec is in a hurry to launch an initial public offering aimed at netting up to $10 billion.
FARM BILL AND TRUMP’S GLYPHOSATE ORDER MAGNIFY PESTICIDES’ WATERSHED MOMENT’
FROM: Delger Erdenesanaa, Chemical and Engineering News, March 3, 2026
Key Insights
• President Donald J. Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production of glyphosate-based pesticides, potentially giving manufacturers immunity from lawsuits over alleged health impacts and inadequate warning labels.
• More than 60,000 lawsuits threaten the viability of Roundup and other glyphosate-based products in the US, according to manufacturer Bayer, which recently proposed a $7.25 billion class settlement.
• These actions are part of a larger political brawl over pesticide warnings and manufacturers’ liability, as members of the US Congress seek to shield manufacturers through legislation and the US Supreme Court prepares to hear a related case.
A national fight over pesticide warning labels and manufacturer liability has accelerated in recent months, with Bayer, which acquired Monsanto and its glyphosate-based w**d killer Roundup in 2018, at its center. And over the past few weeks, the fight has built “to a crescendo,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), a member of the US House Agriculture Committee, tells C&EN.
February brought a volley of events in rapid succession: On Feb. 13, House Republicans unveiled a draft farm bill that would mandate uniform pesticide labels nationwide, preempting state and local governments from requiring warnings that differ from those approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency. On Feb. 17, Bayer announced a proposed class settlement for the tens of thousands of people who say Roundup has given them cancer. And on Feb. 18, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order declaring domestic production of glyphosate-based herbicides and the elemental phosphorus that goes into them a matter of national security. He invoked the Defense Production Act to “ensure a continued and adequate supply” and potentially shield manufacturers from liability associated with supplying these products.
GREAT LAKES PRIORITIES, MONITORING AND BATTERY STORAGE
FROM: Jeff Kart, February 27, 2026
1 – What are the top five priorities for the Great Lakes?
The Alliance for the Great Lakes, which advocates for protections, has identified a handful of priorities for Congress and the Trump Administration.
The priorities:
Increase water infrastructure funding, prioritize funding
for communities most in need, and enact national water
affordability legislation
Reauthorize and fund the Great Lakes Restoration
Initiative
Pass a Farm Bill that prioritizes clean water
Pass legislation to stop plastic pollution
And finally … Protect the Great Lakes from aquatic
Invasive species.
The organization says all five priorities require federal agencies to support scientific research and retain necessary staff.
More information about the Alliance and its top 2026 federal priorities is online at GreatLakes.org.
…
2 – The Michigan Clean Water Corps is looking for volunteers.
The Corps collects surface water quality data statewide and is looking for help with its 2026 Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program.
Locally, training will be offered online via Zoom.
Program volunteers monitor water quality, invasive species, and habitat conditions in lakes. They receive detailed instructions, training, and equipment. The data they collect are added to the MiCorps Data Exchange, a public database that includes lake information dating back to 1974. See MiCorps.net for more information.
…
3 – Midland Township and eight other communities will host solar power and battery storage projects to advance clean energy.
The state says almost $4 million in Renewables Ready Communities Awards will support projects to provide Michigan households and businesses with clean energy.
Midland Township in Midland County will receive $750,000, pending final approval, for hosting Salzburg Battery Storage, a 150-megawatt battery storage project with an expected construction date of June 2027 and an operation date of December 2028.
Fairgrove Township in Tuscola County also is due to receive $500,000 for hosting Tuscola II Energy Storage, a 100-megawatt battery storage project with an expected construction date of April 2027 and an operation date of May 2028.
Mason Township in Arenac County is due to receive about $120,000 for hosting Au Gres Solar, a 55 megawatt solar project with an expected construction date of July 2026 and operation date of September 2028.
Officials say deploying renewable energy at scale is essential to meeting targets in the state’s MI Healthy Climate Plan.
LAST WORD
“It’s great news that Syngenta is exiting the paraquat business, but it’s also a reminder that smaller companies will readily fill the void as long as this poison remains approved in our borders.”
Nathan Donley
Environmental Health Science Director, Center for
Biological Diversity
Member
Michigan Environmental Councial
Terry Miller, Editor, Chair
(989) 450-8097
Executive Board
John Witucki (989) 529-1704
Martin Shackelford (608) 285-9086
Patrick Race (989) 893-7623
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