Last December, Aric Nesbitt, a proud Republican member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), introduced a bill, H.B. 5205 that went largely unnoticed. The bill would reclassify petroleum coke (“petcoke”) and solid waste as a “renewable energy resource”, eligible for renewable energy tax credits. Yes, you’re right to gasp. Earlier this month, Executive Director for the Michigan League of […]

Corporatism is alive and well in state governments across the USA The Guardian newspaper has a blockbuster piece out today that shows how the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has turned to working through state Attorneys General to stop any efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative […]

Global climate change, global schlimate change The day before the Dexter Tornado hit Dexter, Michigan on March 15, 2012, Anne and I were installing a new garage door opener in shorts and t-shirts. Swarmed by mosquitoes, we were forced to slather up with bug spray because it go so bad. The next day, after hitting a record-breaking 75 degrees, we […]

Funny how it’s never near a posh neighborhood of mansions… Cloud of petcoke dust rises over Detroit in the summer of 2013 This past summer, thanks to the hue and cry from Democrats in Michigan as well as Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, a group owned by the notorious Koch brothers was forced to take their noxious, toxic piles of petcoke […]

How can you deny what’s in front of your eyes? [CC photo credit: Michael McCullough (ex_magician) | Flickr] In the mid-1990s, an outbreak of pine mountain beetle infestation began in the western United States up through Canada and has decimated a truly phenomenal number of forests. In Colorado this year, an estimated quarter million acres of forest are affected, down […]

I pledge allegiance to flag of the Corporate State of America… State Attorney General Bill Schuette’s job is to be the top law enforcement official in Michigan. As part of that job, his role is to protect the health and safety of Michiganders. Apparently he didn’t get the memo. Schuette has sued the Environmental Protection Agency to keep them from […]

Last week, the BlueGreen Alliance announced the launch of its “Repair America” campaign designed to push action on repairing crucial national infrastructure across the country and create thousands of valuable jobs in the process. The BlueGreen Alliance is a partnership of labor and environmental groups working to expand the number of jobs in the renewable energy sector. Over 100 people […]

What could possibly go wrong?

On the banks of the Detroit River, giant three-story tall mountains of black rock have been accumulating, quickly and quietly enough to take a lot of Detroiters and neighboring Canadians by surprise. The piles are petroleum coke or “pet coke”, a by-product of the processing of tar sands oil from Canada. A newly upgraded Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit now allows them to process the tar sands oil, producing copious amounts of the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste product.

A recent New York Times article shows that Michiganders and Canadians alike are concerned by the use of land directly on the Detroit River to store the potentially hazardous pet coke.

Click through for more.

At what point does climate change denial become a mental illness?

The Great Lakes are now at historically low levels. So low, in fact, that Governor Snyder was forced to prevail upon the legislature to pass emergency funding to dredge 58 harbors and bays so that ships and recreational vessels can continue to use them.

Yet, somehow, the corporate-funded climate change deniers still have a voice in what is no longer a debate about the reality of global climate change.

Much more after the jump.

Pay no attention to the Koch behind the curtain

Greedy Lying Bastards is a new documentary released to theaters this past week that reveals the intentional, corporate-funded deception campaign that has shaped our conversation about climate change in profound and dangerous ways. While it’s long been known that the fossil fuel industry — “Big Oil” — has been throwing up a smokescreen (pardon the pun) to confuse the debate over the existence of human-caused climate change, Greedy Lying Bastards picks up where Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth left off to show us just how deliberate and well-funded this effort has been.

The film has already won numerous awards including the 2012 Burbank Film Festival, the Eco-Award at the 2012 Boston Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2012 United Nations Film Festival, 2012 Bahamas International Film Festival and 2012 Costa Rica International Film Festival.

Click through for more including clips from the film.