From 2019 to 2022, median household income in Michigan rose $7,400 — but high inflation turned that gain into an $1,800 drop in buying power and lowered the state’s median household income to 37th in the nation.

Michigan can’t foist the energy transition on rural communities without their consent, but instead should build bridges that demonstrate we are all in this together.

The latest Lunch Break event will feature the Bridge team discussing the findings of the industrial legacy reporting project. Join us at noon Thursday, Sept. 28.

The auto industry is getting billions to build battery plants on rural land, while taxpayers pay for contaminated plants left behind. Will history repeat itself? Or will Michigan forge a new path?

Michigan went from strict cleanup laws to among the most lenient. Three decades and 26,000 contaminated sites later, will the state reverse course? Democrats, GOP and business leaders see areas to agree on.

Milan, Romeo and Wyoming are Michigan towns with something in common: All are sitting on shuttered auto plants where legacy pollution may complicate their path to recovery.

Bridge Michigan set out to quantify the financial and environmental toll factory contamination has exacted on Michigan, and what the state can do to avoid repeating history in the shift to EVs. Here’s what we found.

Our first-of-its-kind analysis identified at least $259 million in publicly subsidized cleanups at more than 100 sites linked to Michigan’s automotive industry. Here’s why the tab is almost certainly far higher.

Michner Plating, a former automotive metal plater in Jackson, left contaminated soil and groundwater when it went bankrupt and closed shop. Auto suppliers are responsible for some of Michigan’s costliest cleanups.