A $3.06 million grant will be used to convert Mackinac ferry to electric power. Written by Janelle D. James of Bridge Michigan on March 14, 2023.

Boom.

You are now registered to join hundreds of climate-minded counterparts at Michigan's premier Climate Summit. Thank you for your ticket purchase and welcome to the cause! Check your email for your receipt, and if you're not seeing it right away, please check your spam folder. As always, you can Contact Us with any questions or concerns.

All are welcome to join, either in-person or online, the launch of a Community Voices Series at the first Michigan Climate Action Network Members’ Meeting of 2023! 

This month’s Community Voices will feature groups advancing equitable climate solutions in Kalamazoo and West Michigan and the quarterly Members’ Meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss initiatives, actions, and upcoming events. Come ready to learn about Kalamazoo’s efforts toward bold climate action, get updates from MiCAN, and share your work!

Register for In-Person Attendance  |  Register for Virtual Attendance

March Community Voices & Members’ Meeting Outline 

• 12:00pm Welcome & Overview 
• 12:15pm Community Voices 
  • Climate Change Working Group, Western Michigan University (CCWG)
  • Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition (KCCC)
  • West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC)
• 1:00pm Members’ Meeting & Networking
• 1:30pm Conclude
• 2:00pm Social Hike at KNC

We are grateful to have our event included as part of Western Michigan University’s Climate Emergency Month, and to our hosts, the Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition and the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Following our meeting, they have offered for us to take a climate-themed walk through the sugarbush, or in the event of inclement weather, tour their visitor center to see its exciting new energy conservation improvements.

Moving forward, MiCAN will rotate the content and geographical area of focus. The Community Voices Series will continue monthly (virtually) and draw diverse participants from the network to amplify local climate work, connect members and groups, and support each other's actions.

Climate S.O.S.!

Sharing Our Stories Amid Michigan's Moment

Addressing the climate crisis calls for social action, guided by science, informed by values, and fueled by emotional engagement. This year, in addition to science and policy, we’re convening even more movement makers and connecting to the broader cultural work of artists, storytellers, educators, and activists. Our vision is for an accessible, interactive, and fun day focused on increasing our collective capacity, supporting each other, and unleashing the creative potential of the climate movement to transform culture.

Our planning committee is hard at work on panels that will include youth, local climate leaders, state legislators and Whitmer administration officials, how-to sessions, and more! Stay tuned for a detailed agenda to come soon.

Get your tickets below and join us June 2nd for a constructive and restorative Climate Summit!

Energized about the Summit but need some help getting there? Please, request a scholarship and/or travel stipend made possible by our generous donors.

A first-of-its-kind event in its ambition and scope. The Oakland County Earth Day March and Rally will ask Oakland County communities to seize this moment to take administrative action to fight against the climate crisis while creating justice, protecting future generations, and creating sustainable jobs.

View Itinerary

Written by Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, for The Detroit News.

Written by Sheri McWhirter of MLive on January 20, 2023.

LANSING, MICH. – State officials agreed on an electric rate hike for customers of Consumers Energy but required the company to double its rooftop solar cap, among additional efforts toward electric vehicle charging, community solar, grid reliability, and electrifying residential heating.

MiCAN member Voices for Carbon Neutrality (VCN) acquaints new president at the University of Michigan with major climate issues and urges action.

Creating a Just and Sustainable Future

To help us better understand and address the global climate emergency, Western Michigan University Climate Change Working Group is declaring the month of March 2023 as Climate Emergency Month. The designation is supported by a wide range of campus and local organizations. During the month, events, speakers, discussions, and participatory opportunities will be available throughout the Kalamazoo community.

Events will focus on the urgency of the crisis at global and local levels, on taking action, and ensuring justice. What is the climate emergency? Who will be impacted? How do we protect ourselves and reduce the threat to Earth’s ecosystems? How do we support those most at risk and vulnerable? What challenges are ahead of us?

WMU seeks participation, sponsorship, and support from all educational and community organizations, businesses, and local governments, and urges all groups to develop activities that can be part Climate Emergency Month. To learn more and to have events posted on ClimateEmergencyMonth.org, contact [email protected].

View Full Event Lineup

Written by Catherine Clifford, CNBC.

• Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan are going to dominate electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the United States by 2030.
• This EV battery manufacturing capacity will support the manufacturing of between 10 and 13 million all-electric vehicles per year, putting the U.S. in position to be a global EV competitor.

Welcome to the Michigan Climate Action Network's carefully crafted five-year strategic plan, which will guide the team's actions until 2027 toward achieving a long-term vision for the climate movement. For more, view our full suite of resources:

Strategic Action Plan  |  Plan Presentation Slides  |  Plan Release Recording

1. Communications

Develop a cutting-edge communications hub that spotlights the climate leaders, organizations, and communities advocating real, equitable climate solutions in Michigan. View goals >>

2. Operating Model

Establish an operating model for MiCAN membership that promotes collaboration, connection, and shared investments of time, energy, and resources in the movement for a more just, equitable, resilient, and sustainable Great Lakes State. View goals >>

3. Grassroots Mobilization

Radically expand MiCAN’s reach and recognition among Michiganders interested in climate justice, and connect individuals with the tools and organizations that will help invoke action. View goals >>

4. Grasstops Organizing

Orient MiCAN’s Group Membership Program with organizations toward active partnerships that build power for the climate movement overall. View goals >>

5. Financial Stability 

Expand our reach with climate funders who care about Michigan and grow our revenue to seven figures. View goals >>

6. Staff and Board

Grow the representational diversity of the staff and board/steering committee, as well as its efficacy and power. (Note that diversity implies a wide range of characteristics including but not limited to race, gender, educational background, geographical location, and socio-economic status.) View goals >>

Support Our Work

Help us help you! We need your support to begin implementing our ambitious vision for our mutual future. Please consider contributing to MiCAN to accelerate our efforts to seek and execute real climate solutions in Michigan.

Donate Now

Additionally, aid us in keeping abreast of the latest in Michigan's climate scene by submitting your own news and events! We'll share to our statewide audience through our events calendar, website, and socials to rally Michiganders around the cause to get educated and get activated around climate. We are inspired to act as the megaphone for the climate movement in Michigan, walking alongside you and amplifying all of your indispensable efforts along the way.

Submit an Upcoming Event  |  Share a News Item

Prominent Michigan and Midwest environmental groups recommend USACE assess alternatives to the Line 5 tunnel. Written by Laina G. Stebbins of Michigan Advance on October 18, 2022.

PRESS RELEASE — October 14, 2022  

“The Corps has got to get this right”

Curious what MiCAN commented to the U.S. Army Corps, encouraging it to expand its scope of environmental review? Read our full submission here.

What's at Stake

Enbridge asserts its Line 5 oil pipelines are a critical piece of energy infrastructure for Michigan residents, and has proposed boring a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to continue transporting crude oil and natural gas. But before issuing a permit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (US ACE) must administer an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). If conducted properly, this could effectively halt Enbridge's plans to continue transporting oil through the Great Lakes.

Urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Consider Climate in Its Environmental Impact Statement

Public Hearing Schedule

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold three public hearings to accept comments on their proposed scope for the Environmental Impact Statement. Please join us for at least one, and come prepared with your take on our below talking points!

Thursday, September 1  |  5 - 8 p.m. EDT

• Virtual (via Zoom) 
• By phone at 309-205-3325 using Webinar ID: 835 9013 1384

Thursday, September 8  |  3 - 8 p.m. EDT

• In-Person at Little Bear Arena, St. Ignace

* MiCAN is a member of the larger Oil & Water Don't Mix campaign that is offering transportation to this key event! RSVP to attend the ONE in-person hearing opportunity, and view details for joining by bus from Ann Arbor, Lansing or Traverse City.

Thursday, October 6  |  1 - 4 p.m. EDT

• Virtual (via Zoom)
• By phone at 309-205-3325 using Webinar ID: 829 6174 3672

Wondering What to Say?

The bullets below summarize the suggested message MiCAN invites all Michiganders to relay:

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' EIS must incorporate adequate analysis of climate impacts of the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel. While we acknowledge the Corps’ inclusion of climate as it launches its scoping process, we recognize and caution that it is not sufficient to a construction project of this magnitude.
  • In recent MPSC testimony, four experts presented clear evidence that the tunnel will exacerbate the climate crisis, contributing an estimated 27 million metric tons of CO2 emissions—equivalent to 10 coal plants—every year, and costing $41 billion in net climate impacts. 
• The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process is long and detailed, but what we include now in the scope will affect the alternatives available in the future. Therefore, it is crucial that the purpose and need statement in the Corps’ notice be adjusted: the imperative need is not to build a new Straits crossing, but rather to assure the energy requirements of those currently served by refineries relying on Line 5 are met with minimum adverse effect on the environment and tribal resources.
• The Corps' scope cannot simply seek alternative paths to operating a crude oil pipeline across the straits to serve downstream refineries at current levels; it must weigh all reasonable ways to meet whatever the energy needs may be over the next 40 years. 
  • For purposes of this EIS, the decision cannot be between building the tunnel or leaving the current Line 5 pipes in place. The real choice the Corps must consider is what is best for our climate future: allowing Line 5 to operate under the Straits indefinitely, or shutting it down as the governor has ordered.
• Not only are there further alternatives to an oil pipeline in delivering energy to consumers, but there are massive and enduring impacts beyond the identified and immediate threat of a spill.
  • We urge the Corps to strongly consider the merit in digging a tunnel intended to continue transporting oil for up to 99 years at the same time that more and more communities commit to carbon neutrality or 100% renewable energy by 2050, if not sooner. Constructing the Line 5 tunnel would undermine Michigan’s climate goals.
• The responsibility of all parts of the federal government, including the Corps, is to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels—not slow it down. There are no circumstances that justify locking in fossil fuels by investing in new infrastructure like the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel. The inclusion of climate in a proper EIS scope will plainly beg the question of shutting Line 5 down, and clear the way for the fossil fuel-free future to which we've committed.

Submit Written Testimony

Can't make it in person? You can still send the Army Corps a message with your recommendation of what they need to consider as they examine the EIS scope. Written comments will be accepted until Friday, October 14.*  We encourage you to copy and customize our above stance for submission at the Army Corps of Engineers' website.

* We are working for an extension of the public comment period!

Given the great public interest in this Proposed Project, the Corp should maximize opportunities to allow for public participation. While we appreciate the opportunity to participate both in person and virtually, providing notice about a public meeting a little over a week before the first meeting and just 16 days before the in-person meeting does not ensure adequate public participation.