With generous support from the Colina Foundation, MiCAN is excited to launch the third annual edition of the Michigan Climate Champion Awards, which will recognize individuals doing exceptional work to address the climate crisis in Michigan. The theme of the awards is Climate Civics.

2024 Professional Winners

Meet the 2023 & 2021 Winners

Given our regular engagement with the breadth of our network, we understand and appreciate the importance of recognizing professional advocates who are achieving great things in our state, volunteers who do not get paid to do this work, and youth leaders driving change.

The Theme: Aligned with this year's climate summit, the 2024 award theme is CLIMATE CIVICS. We will honor folks working at the intersections of civic engagement, social justice, and climate action—someone whose contributions illustrate the interlocking crises of democracy and climate justice, educate the populace and empower lifelong climate voters, and/or are a role model for the many ways to perform our civic duty to our communities.

1. The Climate Champion Award goes to a professional doing exceptional climate and justice work for an organization, a municipality, or a business in Michigan;
2. The Climate Action Award is awarded to an individual doing exceptional climate and justice work as a volunteer for an organization in Michigan. This award recipient receives a $1,000 prize for a non-profit of their choice and
3. The Young Climate Leader Award goes to a student or youth who does exceptional work as a volunteer or individual. The award recipient receives a $1,000 prize.

Winners were selected by MiCAN staff and a selection of steering committee members and will be honored during our Winter Members' Meeting this December. This is an annual award, and new themes will be chosen for 2025 and 2026.

By Kate Holloway

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — State regulators ruled in December the best solution to protect the Great Lakes from a disaster is to allow the Canadian oil giant Enbridge to build a $500 million, concrete-lined protective tunnel around its aging, 71-year-old dual pipelines.

Two advocacy groups, the Environmental Law & Policy Center and Michigan Climate Action Network, have now filed a brief asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to reverse that decision, saying there are safer and less expensive alternatives to the proposed Line 5 tunnel.

In this photo provided by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, footage played on a television screen shows damage to anchor support EP-17-1 on the east leg of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline within the Straits of Mackinac, Mich., in June 2020. A federal review of plans for the Great Lakes oil pipeline tunnel will take more than a year longer than originally planned, officials said Thursday, March 23, 2023, likely delaying completion of the project — if approved — until 2030 or later. (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via AP, File)

Donald Trump wants to gut the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides more than $369 billion in clean energy incentives.

By Jennifer Bendery

Tens of millions of Americans live under HOAs, which sometimes block rooftop solar for aesthetic reasons. Michigan is the latest state to protect access to solar.

By Carrie Klein

Photo by John Jevahirian

Groups say legislation would help lower energy costs while helping state transition to clean energy

MiCAN has expressed strong opposition to Marathon Oil’s proposed permit to expand crude oil throughput at its Detroit refinery located in the 48217 neighborhood.

By Jena Brooker

Marathon Petroleum Corporation seeks to remove permit limits and increase production at its Detroit refinery in a new application to state air quality regulators. 

Image: Shutterstock

The sector’s boom is one reason U.S. energy demand is projected to grow significantly for the first time in decades.

By Adam Aton

Traffic passes data centers in Ashburn, Virginia. The centers house the computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, including artificial intelligence. Image: Ted Shaffrey/AP

Environmental activists and other advocates are pushing back against legislation that provides tax cuts for data centers.

Written by Justin P. Hicks | [email protected] and Scott Levin | [email protected]

Michigan’s electric vehicle infrastructure is growing faster than the national average.

A map of Michigan's DC fast charging stations for electric vehicles as of Tuesday, May 7, 2023. An interactive version of the map is available in the story below. (Map by Scott Levin | MLive.com)

Written by Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

Michigan may soon become the latest state to sue the fossil fuel industry over the climate damages caused by its products.

Attorney General Dana Nessel on Thursday accused fossil fuel companies of knowing “exactly what they were doing” by selling a product that causes climate change. (Bridge photo by Jonathan Oosting)

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has announced plans to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change
• The state is seeking proposals from outside lawyers, who would work on behalf of the state
• Environmentalists cheered the planned lawsuit, while fossil fuel industry insiders called it ‘meritless’

MiCAN, along with 425 other groups, called on the Biden administration to declare a climate emergency, protect frontline communities and workers, and advance its commitments to “transition away from fossil fuels” to a just and renewable energy future.

Specifically, the letter urges the administration to:

Five Ways the Fossil Fuel Industry Deceives the Public and Policymakers About its Ongoing Climate Destruction

The Michigan Climate Action Network says it will join challenges to a permit approved last December by the state public service commission.

By Izzy Ross

By Georgina Rannard, BBC climate reporter

A group of older Swiss women have won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights.

Michigan has joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general filing a motion to intervene in a lawsuit, Iowa v. SEC (USCOA Docket No. 24-1522), before the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, to defend the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's "final rule" on climate-related disclosures for investors. The rule says certain companies must also disclose direct and indirect greenhouse-gas emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat, or cooling.

Image: Mohamed_hassan via pixabay

Pontiac students to breathe cleaner air thanks to 15 new electric buses

President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda Provides the Single Largest Industrial Decarbonization Investment in the Nation’s History, Driving $20+ Billion in Total Investment to Revitalize Manufacturing Communities and Create and Maintain Good-Paying Jobs 

Image: jyrkijnieminen via Pixabay