Canary in the Coal Mine

Digging into the complexities of Michigan's economy and environment has been a great challenge, and a lot of fun. My first freelance piece ran in Lansing's alt-weekly the City Pulse Wednesday. It examined the extent to which public utility Lansing Board of Water and Light tried to find an environmental representative for its citizens advisory panel, charged with to eliciting public opinion and making recommendations on its plan to build a new $1 billion, primarily coal-fired power plant. It is an attempt to show the public that it won't just railroad this plan through the city council.

At the crux of the issue is BWL's naming, Dennis Muchmore, a long-time lobbyist and current director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs. Aside from other ties that bring into question Muchmore's ability to act as an impartial representative of the public's environmental interest, his lobbying firm represented BWL in the past. Critics have called him a token and a ringer for BWL. But Muchmore says he sold his interest in the firm four years ago.

No problem, right?

Except that an SEC filing (view it here) he made Sept. 28, 2007, Muchmore listed the firm as his employer. We'll see what shakes out on it. Read the whole story.

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On another note, I moved to Michigan during its worst economy since the Great Depression. Unemployment here is the highest in the country at 8.9 percent; it's at five-year high of 6.1 percent nationally. Roads suck, the Department of Environmental Quality is so incredibly underfunded companies can now dump pollutants in waterways without first submitting to an on-site inspection. Towns like Detroit and Flint are decimated, and boarded-up gas stations and empty businesses line blocks even in relatively prosperous Lansing with "for sale" signs that read as jokes.

Clearly, as goes the auto industry, so goes Michigan's economy. I stumbled upon this interview with The United States of Toyota author Peter M. De Lorenzo, about voters' feelings about the candidates' auto-related policies. This section, in particular, struck me:

Detroit automakers have been "crying wolf" for the past five years — saying they're "12 months away from going out of business." How long do they really have?

I can tell you that the situation is precarious. There is no crying wolf, not by any stretch of the imagination. Chrysler will not survive past 2009 no matter what, because Cerberus Capital Management simply bit off more than they could chew. GM and Ford have eighteen months — tops — if they don't get things rolling again.

Read the interview here.