THEN:
The "Polluter Pay Law" signed by former Governor Blanchard in 1990 that took effect in 1991 was gutted by Governor Engler in 1995 just when the law was showing significant progress.
That same year, 1995, the environmental cleanup standards were made about 25 times looser under the guise of the need to clean up urban brownfields... except the standards were applied state-side.. reducing the economic incentives to clean up urban brownfields since polluters could just develop in "green fields" and be allowed to turn them into "tan fields".
Engler also removed all citizen oversight of the DEQ, splitting the department from the DNR and putting it under his direct control.
NOW:
Engler-like practices resume under current Governor Snyder:
The DEQ was again split from the MDNRE (after Governor Granholm recombined them.)
The DEQ's semi-secret Collaborative Stakeholder Initiative (CSI) has rushed through recommendations to loosen environmental standards even more and further gut the DEQ's powers to protect the Waters of the State. The CSI committee "stakeholders" included mostly DEQ staff and corporate polluters, their lawyers and consultants... one member from environmental groups and none from the general public. Also on page 3, note who provided funding support for the CSI.
Here are some other DEQ committee member lists under Gov. Snyder.
We're 2/3 water... Act Accordingly.
As former Senator and Earth Day co-founder Gaylord Nelson reminded us: "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around"