When more than 300 people from a quiet, rural community just west of Ann Arbor packed a public hearing on an idle Tuesday night, it was evident that a storm was brewing.
Indeed, last spring in Scio Township, the storm in question was the threat of a permit for an exploratory oil well in citizens’ backyards, less than one mile from the Huron River. Nobody asked for an oil well in Scio Township, but West Bay Exploration Company came to town anyway. What Scio Township residents were surprised to learn that night was that there was little to nothing they could do to stop their community from becoming the next site for oil exploration.
Scio Township is just one of numerous Michigan communities that are wrestling with the repercussions of abysmal policy passed by the Michigan legislature in 2006. The Zoning and Enabling Act allows extraction projects, such as drilling for oil or gas, to trump local control. The act singles out township and county governments and bans them from having any say in where oil and gas companies can set up shop.
To add insult to injury, an amendment to the 2006 law set in place an additional hurdle for local governments. Former State Representative Matt Huuki, whom Michigan LCV subsequently helped to defeat in his re-election bid in 2012, sponsored legislation in 2011 that placed the onus on local governments to prove that a mining project would be too dangerous to exist in their locale in order to ban it from certain areas, like neighborhoods or near schools, parks, and nature preserves.
The 2006 law and the 2011 amendment effectively stripped Michigan communities of their rights to determine if an oil well or an extensive mining project would come to town or not. With a law in place that favors drilling and mining over local agency and control, it is no wonder that applications for oil wells and gravel mines are popping up all across our state, including in populated communities like Scio.
This summer, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved West Bay Oil’s permit for an exploratory well in Scio Township, despite public outcry and broad-based citizen organizing via Michigan LCV’s Mark Your Territory tool. Recently in Macomb County, hundreds of citizens crowded together for an emergency hearing because the same oil and gas company was given a permit to place an exploratory oil well in Shelby Township, in the middle of a nature preserve and right next to a residential neighborhood. Just this week, the Boards of Trustees in both Shelby and Scio approved temporary moratoriums on oil and gas drilling, both of which will likely face legal challenges, but are brave moves to stand up to detrimental state law.
Michigan citizens are not holistically opposed to any and all oil production in the state. They are opposed to oil and gas drilling and mining operations in residential, rural and sensitive areas — near near homes, businesses, and waterways, which are often sources of drinking water. They are also aghast at the reality that their collective voices do not matter.
Before more storms brew in backyards across the state, our elected officials in Lansing should take action to restore local control over drilling and mining projects. So far, the strongest agents for change have been Michigan citizens like you, voicing concerns at public hearings and contacting elected officials directly. If we continue to hold decision-makers accountable and vote for conservation candidates this November, we will be on the path to reinstating justice and power to local units of government. No longer should extraction industries hold a trump card to community will.
Source: Michigan League of Conservative Voters
