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Snyder administration: “We have no interest” in MGRA

Group Wants Michigan Out Of ‘Cap And Trade’     –     MIRS, Thursday, April 7, 2011
The fiscal conservative group Americans for Prosperity-Michigan (AFP) today called on Gov. Rick SNYDER to end Michigan’s three-and-a-half-year membership in the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (MGRA), a regional cap-and-trade association created in September 2007.

The MGRA cap-and-trade program, in 2009, announced draft final recommendations including six states — Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — and the Canadian province of Manitoba in which it called for emission reduction targets of 18 to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The plan called for a cap on carbon emissions on electric generation starting in 2012 and a fee, or sorts, similar to one already in place in 10 northeast states under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

“Gov. Snyder has a great number of economic problems on his plate that require cooperation from the legislature and buy-in by the public at large before they can be implemented,” said AFP-Michigan Spokesman Jake DAVISON. “However, with a stroke of his pen our Governor can send a clear message that Michigan is indeed reinventing itself by withdrawing from this cap-and-tax scheme.”

Randy GROSS, legislative liaison for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), said the cap-and-trade push was a priority pushed by the prior administration and that “we have no interest in pushing that philosophy.”

While the MGRA is an inactive group on the trade-and-cap front, there have been discussions in recent years about energy development and economic opportunities, which are still items of interest in Michigan.

“It’s important that Michigan have a voice and know what other states are doing in that respect,” Gross said.

It should be noted that in 2009, when the final draft report was issued, five of the six U.S. states involved were led by Democratic Party governors. Today, only two of the six are.

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