Permission to Pollute – The Polluter Rulebook – Episode 2

The environmental arm of our state was created to protect our land, water, wildlife and us residents from pollution—it’s enshrined in Michigan’s constitution. And yet, over the course of 30 years, the department and its thousands of employees have been stripped of its powers time and again, rendering it far more toothless than we might expect.

In Episode 1 of “The Polluter Rulebook” miniseries, we learned how one sentence froze Michigan’s pollution laws back in time. In Episode 2, Christy McGillivray of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter puts that sentence into context. She tells us how one governor began a domino effect of gutted environmental protections that we’re now building back with force.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts

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To learn more about the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, click here.

To read Christy’s breakdown of our state environmental department’s stripped powers, click here.

To get more episodes, stories and opportunities, visit The Polluter Rulebook.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Lansing resident Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Our 2024 series is sponsored by Kalsec, a global ingredient company headquartered in Kalamazoo that meets the highest recognized social and environmental standards through its B Corps certification.