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MLCV: 2017-18 state legislature failed to protect environment

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The Michigan League of Conservation Voters says its most recent legislative scorecard for the 2017 - 2018 session paints a bleak picture.

Lisa Wozniak is the bipartisan group's executive director. She says a low point was the state legislature's approval of a bill that gives polluters a say in setting cleanup standards. Governor Snyder signed the bill into law.

Wozniak says the legislature also failed to renew the Clean Michigan Initiative after it ran out of money. The initiative pays for cleanups of pollution around the state.

"This aggressively anti-environmental agenda pushed by our state legislature comes at a time when an estimated 1.5 million Michiganders may be impacted by a new and largely unregulated industrial drinking water contaminant called P-FAS," Wozniak says.

The report also gives scores to individual legislators based on how they voted on bills protecting the environment.

Forty received a perfect score of 100. All but one were Democrats. State Representative Tory Rocca received the lone score of 100 among Republican legislators.

Eight Republicans received a score of nine or less out of 100, including Patrick Colbeck, who lost the Republican primary to run for governor.

Tracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Public as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.
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