Consumers Energy and Confluence Hydro presented to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission Wednesday.
Rural Michigan
Posted inQuality of Life
Beyond books: Michigan libraries reinventing role as reading wanes
Libraries across Michigan are lending tools and cookware, hosting clothing swaps, repair cafés and indoor farmers markets. ‘We’re so much more than (a place) for checking out books,’ one official said.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Consumers Energy’s sale plan would turn unprofitable dams into $270M payday
The utility’s plan to sell 13 unprofitable dams and buy back the power would boost its profits by $270 million while ratepayer costs skyrocket. Critics of the sale are crying foul, but Consumers maintains its sale plan is the cheapest option for ratepayers.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | Michigan is paying industrial livestock operations to keep polluting our air, water
Digesters are often proposed as an environmentally friendly way to manage and repurpose manure for energy, but they’re not the climate solution they’re often heralded to be. Yet the federal and state governments are pouring public money into them.
Posted inOutdoors Life
More people fishing in Michigan as state considers license fee hikes
Today marks the first day of the 2026 fishing season, which means anglers need a new license and need to pay attention to some notable regulation changes.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | Michigan’s rural health care crisis is being ignored
Michigan is set to receive over $173 million in federal funding to improve health care access, but creative accounting allows major population centers to pilfer these resources and, once again, leave rural communities behind.
Posted inQuality of Life
Most Michigan counties gained population last year. See where
Michigan’s population grew between 2020 and 2025, new Census estimates show, but some parts of the state are doing better than others.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Providers face ‘extreme shortage’ of paramedics, EMTs in rural Michigan
Paramedics and EMTs regularly handle the state’s worst medical traumas and receive wages similar to fast-food workers. Even with state assistance to promote workforce development, gaps remain.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
EMS providers battle money, staffing woes in rural Michigan’s ambulance ‘deserts’
Rural emergency medical services in Michigan are burdened by the high cost of keeping crews ready and insurance payouts that fail to cover calls. Hospital closures and mergers and a lack of local dollars aren’t helping matters, leaving local residents in a bind to keep services afloat.
Posted inOutdoors Life
Michigan United Conservation Clubs to pause camp, magazines amid financial woes
The group claims to be the largest statewide conservation organization in the nation. Its board president said, ‘It’s tight right now.’