April 24, 2026

When Tea Party and Environmentalism Meet

by Keith Schneider0

Quick. Who said this? A leader of the Tea Party or an extremist environmentalist? “You make a tragic mistake characterizing the new grassroots environmental movement blossoming in the resistance to the horrific idea of burning the life on planet earth whether it be trees, whales or crops for fuel  as “blowback.” Unless you mean blowback to the corporate funded environmental movement and their paid lobbyists, marketers, and “experts.” The public clearly understands the physics of …

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Wood Biomass Projects Advance in U.S.

by Keith Schneider0

Just as the Traverse City Record-Eagle aims another editorial broadside to block the local utility’s decision to pursue a right-sized, state-of-the-art, clean, renewable 10 mw wood biomass plant, evidence of public support emerges from other states where the technology is being pursued with vigor. The new wood biomass projects are a clear indication that momentum for the technology and fuel source is pushing ahead despite misplaced public opposition in a number of states, including Michigan. …

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Circle of Blue is “Changing the Face of Journalism”

by Keith Schneider0

Bob Giles, a son of the Midwest, former Pulitzer Prize winning editor at the Akron Beacon Journal, and then again as editor and publisher of The Detroit News, has been the curator since 2000 of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. A working newspaper journalist and editor since 1958, Giles knows a thing or two about reporting. He just published a piece in Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and …

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Daryl Gates’ Command Ends in California

by Keith Schneider0

Among the accumulated roles I play is to report and write what the New York Times calls “advances,” short for advance obituaries of prominent people. The Times has a list of completed advances that numbers around 1,400, roughly 30 of which I’ve completed. It likely sounds ghoulish to most people, but writing about well-known players on the national stage is often an efficient way to understand a place or an era or both. Today Daryl …

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Cape Wind Awaits Federal Approval

by Keith Schneider0

As the 40th anniversary of Earth Day draws closer, wind energy developers in Massachusetts are awaiting word from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about a permit to proceed. Cape Wind, which wants to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm near Nantucket, earlier this month reached agreement with Siemens to purchase 130 turbines, a move praised by Massachusetts Democratic Governor Deval Patrick and Ian Bowles, the Massachusetts secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It’s difficult to …

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Across the Big Pond Bonn Climate Negotiators

by Keith Schneider0

Today diplomats and climate action specialists met in Bonn for the first international climate meeting since the Copenhagen summit in December. April in fact marks the start of an intensifying schedule of global negotiating sessions on climate action, and on the international economy. NGO climate leaders from USCAN and our member organizations are in Bonn. Among the many things they are doing is to help make the case to delegates that at the very moment …

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Blocking Wood Biomass, Blocking Coal in Michigan — Does it Make Sense?

by Keith Schneider1

Eartha Jane Melzer, one of the reporters in Michigan whose work merits close attention, posted a piece a week ago on Michigan Messenger that described the legal work the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council are doing to block a big new coal-fired power plant in Bay City. Here is one of the important events associated with the transition to the clean energy economy. On one hand environmental organizations are pursuing legal suits …

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“Precedent Setting Achievement”

by Keith Schneider0

The director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth last week lauded Traverse City Light & Power for pursuing a renewable energy strategy that fits northwest Michigan’s reputation as a green region, and “complements all the assets and progressive trends this region represents”. Stanley “Skip” Pruss, who is one of Governor Jennifer Granholm’s closest advisors and a nationally known clean energy leader, also supported the utility’s proposal to generate a portion of …

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Michigan Clean Energy Chief — Transcript About TC Biomass Plant

by Keith Schneider0

Stanley “Skip” Pruss, the director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth and a nationally regarded clean energy leader, was in Traverse City last week. The visit came the day after EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the federal government would use the Clean Water Act to tame the rapacious mining practices in the Appalachian coal belt involving removing the tops of mountains. Jackson is proposing to lower limits on salinity in …

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Opposition to Biomass Impedes Clean Energy Development

by Keith Schneider2

Mode Shift has reported the clean energy transition is being impeded by civic opposition to wind projects, solar projects, new transmission lines, and geothermal projects.  This post is the latest in the series and focuses on wood biomass. The Portland Oregonian, in an article in March, counted 18 states where wood biomass energy proposals are encountering stiff civic resistance. One of those states is Michigan, where a plan by Traverse City Light & Power to …

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