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Rep. Nesbitt: Save, Don’t Sink, MI's Clean Energy Progress!

Clean Energy | April 30, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

MLUI just wrote to state Rep. Aric Nesbitt and the House Committee on Energy Policy, urging them to expand, not eliminate, Michigan’s fabulously successful renewable energy and energy optimization standards. Could you read our letter and then email your own note to Rep Nesbitt’s committee in the next few days? ...

Like Food, Local Music Can Grow Economy

Thriving Communities | April 30, 2015 | By Hans Voss

Traverse City has shown that anything is possible. The arts are a growing and important part of our local culture and economy. Now it’s time to ramp up the local music scene to a level that meets the high standards of our terrific town ....

Agriculture Forum: Food & Farming Network Summit shares stories

Food and Farming Network | April 17, 2015 | By Meghan McDermott

In Emmet County, a baker has found a nearby farmer to grow bread-quality wheat. Schools are serving more locally grown food. The Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District is supporting teachers in farm-to-school and school-garden curriculum so that students learn reading, math and science while learning to love eating healthy food. These were just a few of the stories shared recently at the seventh annual Northwest Michigan Food & Farming Network Summit....

MLUI Supports Proposal 1

Transportation | April 17, 2015 | By James Bruckbauer

Michigan’s roads and bridges are in desperate need of repair, yet the funding structure for transportation is broken. The measure on the ballot this May 5 attempts to remedy that. While Proposal 1 is not a perfect fix, the Michigan Land Use Institute firmly believes that the positive changes it would have for our infrastructure far outweigh the negatives. ...

Guest View: Shared Heat Can Warm MI’s Energy Policy

Clean Energy | April 7, 2015 | By Jamie Scripps

Power plants waste a lot of energy—most of it as heat fleeing up their smokestacks. But what if the plants captured that wasted heat and put it to good use—producing more electricity, warming nearby buildings, or assisting industrial processes?...

Time for Lansing to Catch, Not Ignore, the New-Tech Energy Wave

Clean Energy | March 26, 2015 | By Skip Pruss, of 5 Lakes Energy, and Jim Dulzo

We’ll always need a rock-solid, unshakably constant supply of power. But today there are other ways to do that besides merely burning more fossil fuel.
New distributed energy technologies, new grid control systems, and new demand-side energy services should be part of what has been an under-informed, truncated conversation about meeting Michigan’s future electricity needs....

MLUI takes first place in crowdfunding competition

A2TC | March 26, 2015 | By MLUI

The work to bring passenger rail to Traverse City is off to a good start thanks to a quick crowdfunding effort that raised almost $19,000 in ten days. This month, the Michigan Land Use Institute took first place in the Patagonia and Moosejaw “$10,000 Charity Thing,” an annual crowdfunding competition among ten causes nationwide, and took home an additional $5,000 prize for a total of $18,650....

Snyder needs help pushing energy goals

Clean Energy | March 25, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

Gov. Rick Snyder recently unveiled his long-awaited energy policy goals, and they are good ones. But with the most conservative Republicans in Lansing pointed in a different direction, success requires party moderates to work with Democrats, who back a platform resembling the governor’s....

Guest View: Michigan's energy efficiency policy works

Clean Energy | March 4, 2015 | By Martin Kushler

The "Clean, Renewable, and Efficient Energy Act" of 2008 has been a tremendous success. But incredibly, there are politicians at the Capitol who are considering eliminating the Energy Optimization policy — not because it isn't working, but because they don't like the idea of government "mandates." Repealing the current Energy Optimization policy would instead be eliminating the most effective energy efficiency policy Michigan has ever had....

A2TC: Connecting Traverse City and Ann Arbor by Rail

A2TC | February 25, 2015 | By James Bruckbauer

Modern passenger rail service connecting Traverse City to Ann Arbor... it's quite a vision. It would strengthen our regional economy and stimulate development along the route. It would take cars off the highways, with the environmental benefits of cleaner air and less fuel consumption. It would use an existing asset to offer a new transportation option for those of us who live in the Traverse City area and an appealing new way for visitors to come to our area. But what’s most exciting? It can be a reality, and it’s the Michigan Land Use Institute’s goal that within 10 years, regular passenger train service connects Traverse City and Ann Arbor....

Crowdfunding Could Brighten Michigan’s Clouded Solar Future

Solar Power | February 24, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

Want to invest in a hot technology, earn a decent rate of return, create Michigan jobs, and battle climate change—all at the same time? Thanks to an innovative state law that allows “crowdfunded” investments by state residents in new or existing businesses, Michiganders could soon do exactly that by crowd-investing in clean energy projects, particularly solar power systems, located at certain kinds of businesses and institutions....

Guest View: Clean-Energy Shift Is Sharp, Global, and Gaining Speed

Clean Energy | February 17, 2015 | By Skip Pruss

If further proof is needed that the global transition to clean energy is underway, you only need to look at three things that happened this month. ...

Guest View: Wind Works in Michigan

Wind power | February 10, 2015 | By Liesl Clark

The wind industry has come a long way in Michigan. Since the passage of a comprehensive energy statute in 2008 that included Michigan’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)—10 percent renewable energy from all the state’s utilities by 2015—costs have dropped at a remarkable rate....

Peter Boogaart: On-bill financing key to Holland's home retrofits

Clean Energy | February 3, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

Peter Boogaart knows exactly what he’ll do when he retires later this month. The longtime Holland-area resident is leaving the Ottawa County Community Action Agency after six years of helping low-income families tighten up their homes to cut their often budget-crushing energy bills. Now the 66-year-old home efficiency veteran will ramp up his already strong volunteer involvement in the Holland Community Energy Plan’s home efficiency retrofit project, which aims to cut gas and electric consumption of each of the city’s 7,000-plus homes by up to 50 percent over 40 years....

Taste the Local Difference to Produce Magazine with 'Traverse'

TLD | February 3, 2015 | By MyNorth

New this year, MyNorth Media, publishers of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, will produce Michigan Land Use Institute’s Taste the Local Difference as a magazine that combines the utility of the previous maps with fascinating stories and stunning photography of the Northern Michigan food scene....

Holland’s Bright Energy Plan Starts to Roll

Clean Energy | January 26, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

Holland, Michigan's forward-looking Community Energy Plan is steadily gaining momentum and public support for transforming an old Lake Michigan port city into a world-class clean energy champion....

Holland’s Dan Nally: Building a Power Plant Like No Other

Clean Energy | January 26, 2015 | By Jim Dulzo

When it comes to building power plants, Dan Nally has been around the block, the state, and the planet a few times. Now he has a doozy of an assignment: project director for construction of the Holland Board of Public Works' new gas-fired power plant....

County Officials Gamble With Road Network

MLUI News | January 23, 2015 | By MLUI

A brand-new Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners narrowly avoided a decision this week that would have put the key road crossing of the Boardman River at Cass Road out of commission while gambling on an elusive and expensive bypass to connect Hartman and Hammond roads....

Kids Are Cooking It Up in Northern Michigan

FoodCorps | January 19, 2015 | By Meghan McDermott

Two chefs enter the room, prepared to demonstrate the latest dish they’ve learned to perfect. The audience is at the edge of their seats, craning to catch a glimpse of every last ingredient and technique required to recreate the recipe at home. But this isn’t the latest stadium battle of Iron Chef or a scene from Chopped. The audience members are no more than 6 years old, and the chefs are only a few years older. ...

School Garden Workshop in Northern Michigan

School Gardens | January 19, 2015 | By Diane Conners

Janis Groomes, food service director at Northport Public Schools, knows the power of school gardens to get kids interested in eating fruits and vegetables, even ones that are unusual....

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