Earthjustice advocacy at Michigan’s public service commission is shutting down dirty fossil fuel energy and making the state a clean energy leader.
What to know:
- Local activists teamed up with Earthjustice to make big progress against polluters in Michigan.
- The state is now on track to close its last coal plant by 2032 and lead the clean energy transition nationwide.
- Many of these wins took place at the public service commission, a key venue for climate progress.
For decades, residents of River Rouge, Michigan, have been under siege from sometimes dangerous — and often dirty — industries. Marathon Petroleum, U.S. Steel, DTE Energy. These titans help power our homes and facilitate our relatively comfortable lives.
But they’re also the culprits of deadly pollution that has made ZIP code 48217 and the surrounding community one of the state’s most polluted areas. This contamination shows up in many ways, from oil-slicked rivers and soot-stained vehicles, to burning lungs and lost opportunities.
“Every morning waking up, I could see a red or orange sky. And I thought it was normal,” says Dr. Dolores Leonard, who grew up in River Rouge. “And it wasn’t until I was in my early 30s that I realized that it was not normal, and that what was happening was pollution coming from industry.”
Since the late 1990s, Leonard has been part of a broad coalition pushing to rein in the area’s top polluters. Thanks in large part to Earthjustice’s relentless advocacy in front of the public service commission, a government agency that regulates utilities, Michigan is now on track to both close its last coal plant by 2032 and lead the clean energy transition nationwide. Across the U.S., Earthjustice is advocating on behalf of communities to advance clean energy and climate solutions at these state-level commissions. River Rouge’s wins show what progress can look like.
