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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Since passage of the Endangered Species Act 50 years ago, more than 1,700 plants, mammals, fish, insects and other species in the U.S. have been listed as threatened or endangered with extinction. Yet federal government data reveals striking disparities in how much money is allocated to save various biological kingdoms. Of the roughly $1.2 billion a year spent on endangered and threatened species, about half goes toward recovery of just two types of fish: salmon and steelhead trout along the West Coast. Tens of m...
When word surfaced that soils and liquids laced with chemicals from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment were being sent to southeastern Michigan for storage, local residents and politicians were livid. "People were seeing pictures of what happened in Ohio — the smoke plumes, wildlife dying," said Jordyn Sellek, director of a local government coalition. "They were hearing about people having health issues, and that's scary. And now it's coming into your community." So loud was the outcry that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency h...
As fossil fuel emissions continue warming Earth's atmosphere, the Biden administration is turning to hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity. It's offering $8 billion to entice the nation's industries, engineers and planners to figure out how to produce and deliver clean hydrogen. States and businesses are making final pitches Friday as they compete for a new program that will create regional networks, or "hubs," of hydrogen producers, consumers and infrastructure. The aim is to accelerate the...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton's fate seems particularly cruel. The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both. The Ironton's captain and six sailors clambered into a lifeboat but it was dragged to the bottom before they could detach it from the ship. Only two crewmen survived. The gravesite long eluded shipwreck hunters. Now, the mystery h...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease. "White-nose syndrome is decimating cave-dwelling bat species like the northern long-eared bat at unprecedented rates," said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency is "deeply committed to working with partners on a balanced approach that reduces the impacts of disease and protects t...
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya with a shot to the head has been with the Grand Rapids department for seven years, after starring as a pole vaulter at a small college and marrying his longtime girlfriend during a church mission trip to Africa. Christopher Schurr's name had been circulating since his face was seen in videos of the April 4 confrontation with Lyoya, a Black man. But his identity wasn't publicly acknowledged until Monday when the police chief changed course and released it, three d...
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury on Friday acquitted two men of all charges in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer but couldn't reach verdicts against the two alleged leaders, a stunning defeat for the government after a weekslong trial that centered on a remarkable FBI sting operation just before the 2020 election. Whitmer did not immediately comment on the outcome, though her chief of staff was critical, saying Americans are "living through the normalization of political violence." The result was announced on the fifth day of d...
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Jurors returned to court to ask a question Monday but offered no verdict during the first day of deliberations in the trial of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told jurors to "find a good distraction," maybe the NCAA men's basketball championship, and return Tuesday "ready to engage, fresh." Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are charged with a kidnapping conspiracy. Three men also face additional charges, including c...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — They railed against politicians, conducted military-style exercises and spoke darkly of confronting tyrants scheming to seize their guns and enslave them. Yet historian JoEllen Vinyard says the "citizen militia" activists she got to know in the 1990s didn't seem like the types who would abduct a governor or stage a coup. "I don't think they were dangerous," said Vinyard, an Eastern Michigan University professor emeritus and author of a book about far-right movements in the state. "They reminded me of the good old b...
FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration is sticking by the decision under former President Donald Trump to lift protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. But a top federal wildlife official on Friday told The Associated Press there is growing concern over aggressive wolf hunting seasons adopted for the predators in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains. Wolves under federal protection made a remarkable rebound in parts of the U.S. over the past several decades, after being driven from the l...
As Enbridge Energy prepares to finish rebuilding an oil pipeline across rural northern Minnesota, protesters are occupying part of the construction area and pledging a "summer of resistance" on the ground and in court. Enbridge, which has obtained all necessary state and federal permits for the Line 3 project, says it will be finished by year's end. The Canadian company describes it as essential for reliable oil supplies in both nations, saying the plan has undergone rigorous environmental permitting and will boost Minnesota's economy....
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — When a former Michigan public health director was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Flint water crisis, the man who previously held the job says a chilling thought crossed his mind: It could have been me. "I spent 14 years in that chair," said Jim Haveman, who served under two Republican governors — including Rick Snyder, another target of indictments released Thursday. "I dealt with anthrax outbreaks, measles, hepatitis, Legionella. ... The list is a mile long. We had to make tough decisions all the time." He...
Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Thursday defended the Trump administration's record on protecting the nation's air and water and said a second term would bring a greater focus on pollution cleanups in disadvantaged communities and less emphasis on climate change. In a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the EPA's founding, Wheeler said the agency was moving back toward an approach that had long promoted economic growth as well as a healthy environment and drawn bipartisan support. "Unfortunately, in the past...
Escalating its fight with California, the Trump administration accused the state Thursday of failing to stop water pollution from such sources as human waste left on the pavement by the homeless in big cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. San Francisco's mayor disputed any connection between homeless people and water quality, and she and others accused President Donald Trump of using the Environmental Protection Agency to punish the heavily Democratic state. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler outlined a series of alleged deficiencies in...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Great Lakes region is warming faster than the rest of the U.S., a trend likely to bring more extreme storms while also degrading water quality, worsening erosion and posing tougher challenges for farming, scientists reported Thursday. The annual mean air temperature in the region, which includes portions of the U.S. Midwest , Northeast and southern Canada, rose 1.6 degrees (0.9 Celsius) from 1901-60 and 1985-2016, according to the report commissioned by the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center. D...
Nonprofits, businesses and state governments nationwide are putting up money and volunteer hours in a battle to keep national parks safe and clean for visitors as the partial U.S. government shutdown lingers. But such makeshift arrangements haven't prevented some parks from closing and others from being inundated with trash. Support groups say donations of money and time could run short if the budget impasse between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats lasts much longer. Some are calling for parks to close for the duration of the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cabinet chiefs and GOP lawmakers celebrated alongside farm and business leaders Tuesday as the Trump administration made good on one of its biggest promised environmental rollbacks, proposing to lift federal protections for thousands of waterways and wetlands nationwide. Environmental groups called the proposed overhaul a grave assault on the aims of the 1972 Clean Water Act, the foundational U.S. water protection law. Administration supporters praised President Donald Trump for knocking back what they said was federal o...
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder hopes to use the final weeks of his tenure to lock in a deal allowing construction of a hotly debated oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes — a plan his successor opposes but may be powerless to stop. The two-term Republican and his team are working on several fronts to seal an agreement with Canadian oil transport giant Enbridge for replacing the underwater segment of its Line 5, which carries about 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of oil and natural gas liq...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal officials said Monday they were prepared to act quickly if oil pipelines in a sensitive Michigan waterway leak, drawing a skeptical response from a U.S. senator who said the handling of a suspected anchor strike last spring exposed flaws in the system. Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, questioned the readiness of government agencies and the forthrightness of Enbridge Inc., owner of Line 5, which carries 23 million gallons of oil daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. A nearly 5-mile, d...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — For a second consecutive year, President Donald Trump is trying to drastically reduce or eliminate federal support of cleanups for iconic U.S. waterways including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. Trump's proposed 2019 budget for the Environmental Protection Agency released Monday would cut funding by 90 percent for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative — an Obama-era plan for dealing with pervasive pollution in the world's biggest surface freshwater system — and a similar program for Chesapeake Bay, the natio...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt on Thursday defended his frequent taxpayer-funded travel and his purchase of a custom soundproof communications booth for his office, saying both were justified. Pruitt made his first appearance before a House oversight subcommittee responsible for environmental issues since his confirmation to lead EPA in February. While his fellow Republicans largely used their time to praise Pruitt's leadership, Democrats pressed Pruitt on his proposed rollbacks of environmental r...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is home to about 465 bee species, according to a first-ever census that scientists hope will provide information helpful for conserving the insects, which perform the vital chore of pollinating crops and wild plants. The number might surprise people who can tell the difference between a honeybee and a bumblebee but not much else, scientists said Wednesday. In fact, there are about 4,000 bee species in the U.S., and some Western states have at least twice as many as Michigan does. Yet Michigan's total is a b...
MONROE, Mich. (AP) — Competing in a bass fishing tournament two years ago, Todd Steele cast his rod from his 21-foot motorboat — unaware that he was being poisoned. A thick, green scum coated western Lake Erie. And Steele, a semipro angler, was sickened by it. Driving home to Port Huron, Michigan, he felt lightheaded, nauseous. By the next morning he was too dizzy to stand, his overheated body covered with painful hives. Hospital tests blamed toxic algae, a rising threat to U.S. waters. "It attacked my immune system and shut down my body's abi...
Harmful algae blooms have become a top water polluter, fueled by fertilizers washing into lakes, streams and oceans. Federal and state programs have spent billions of dollars on cost-sharing payments to farmers to help prevent nutrient runoff, yet the problem is worsening in many places. Here's a look at the algae menace and what's being done: ___ ANCIENT ORGANISMS, NEW THREAT Among the oldest life forms, algae are simple aquatic plants that form key links in food chains. Some types of bacteria are also considered algae, including...
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — An energy industry group says a video game created by a Michigan State University assistant professor encourages "eco-terrorism" by enabling players to zap imaginary oil pipelines with lightning bolts, although the developer says it doesn't advocate violence. The game is called "Thunderbird Strike." Players can direct an indigenous cultural figure called a thunderbird to destroy pipelines and other machinery with lightning. It's downloaded from a website that outlines steps people can take to oppose real p...
