Line 5: Where Do We Stand Now? + How Your Vote Affects Michigan’s Environment (October 29, 2020)

“The Energy Show” is the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition Livestream program that looks at the future of energy use in the UP. On this program, we visited with Jennifer McKay, Policy Director of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in Petoskey. Jennifer has extensive experience on water issues and frequently testifies before legislative committees on bills. as well as talking to groups. She and your UPEC livestream hosts had a conversation about what is happening with Enbridge’s Line 5 fuel pipeline, including the latest legislative, legal, regulatory, and technical issues. The controversy over Line 5 has become an octopus with multiple tentacles, each raising different questions and unresolved problems.

Then, with the election less than a week away, we switched to voting, with an environmental focus. We went over some basics in case you're not familiar with Michigan voting requirements. Then we talked about how your vote affects public environmental policy. A good example is Proposition 1, which asks voters how state trust funds for our natural resource acquisitions and infrastructure should be spent.

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The Crisis of Expertise and the Impact on the COVID-19 Pandemic (October 15, 2020)

On this installment of the“This Is It!” livestream of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, Professor Jennifer Daryl Slack of Michigan Technological University addressed what has been called “the crisis of expertise” in American culture, in which the value and advice of “experts,” most notably in the sciences, are increasingly being challenged and disregarded. She spoke about the different kinds of challenges to expertise, the sources of these challenges, and their implications, particularly with respect to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. She also considered a strikingly odd feature of this crisis: challenges to expertise are arising in tandem with an increasing reliance on science and technology in American culture.

(Further information on MTU perspectives on Covid-19 and the crisis of expertise.)

Our guest

Slack is Director of the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture and Distinguished Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies at MTU. She has been a professor at Michigan Tech for 32 years, where she has conducted research and taught primarily on technology and culture, cultural theory, creativity, and media. Her recent work has been on the role of algorithms in culture. She is also a pastel painter and an active member of the arts community.

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Transportation Next: Michigan’s Big Plans to Become Smart, Clean, and Electric (September 24, 2020)

With guest Trevor Pawl, Chief of Michigan’s New Office of Future Mobility and Electrification

The West Coast is burning, the Gulf Coast is flooding — and here on the Third Coast, Michigan is getting ready to be part of the climate change solution.  Gasoline engines and “dumb highways” are on their way out, and Michigan has a new office that aims to place the state at the center of a new generation of electric and autonomous vehicle manufacturing, tech-enabled highway corridors, and much more “smart” infrastructure to move people and goods.

“The Energy Show” is the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition Livestream program that looks at the future of energy use in the UP.  On this program we interviewed Trevor Pawl, head of Michigan’s new Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME). OFME is designed to position the state to take advantage of emerging large-scale trends in transportation, pushing us past a reliance on fossil fuels and towards a future where transportation is clean, shared, electrified, and connected.

The discussion includes key insights into the Office’s focus areas, first initiatives, and building on successful state-led mobility efforts through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Department of Transportation and others.

As Chief Mobility Officer for the State of Michigan, Trevor Pawl is responsible for working across state government, academia and private industry to grow Michigan’s mobility ecosystem through strategic policy recommendations and new support services for companies focused on the future of transportation. Prior to this role, Pawl served as the Senior Vice President of Business Innovation at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, as well as in other business positions. Pawl holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Marketing from Grand Valley State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Detroit Mercy.

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