As she approaches her last year as governor, cheers to Jennifer Granholm for finally delivering on a vow she made when she ran for the office in 2002 -- to re-integrate the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality.
DEQ was created by executive order in 1995 when Gov. John Engler unwisely transferred to it environmental regulatory programs from DNR. Subsequently, other orders transferred additional responsibilities to the new department.
Last week, Granholm issued an executive order to combine the two departments, effective Jan. 17, into a new Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE), a move sought by conservationists and environmentalists so long as funding is not reduced.
Granholm said: "Experience has shown us that conserving natural resources and protecting the environment go hand-in-hand. These efforts now will be coordinated under one department."
Dutifully embracing Granholm's order, DNR Director Becky Humphries and DEQ Director Steven Chester said of her hand-in-hand comments: "For that reason, the state of Michigan is returning to the tradition of one department dedicated to this core mission."
Granholm's order -- which will prevail unless both the Senate and House reject it in its entirety -- also gives the governor power to appoint directors of the new department as well as the Department of Agriculture. Commissions appointed by the governor now name directors of agriculture and natural resources.
In the past, when it was a power player in the Legislature, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs under the late Tom Washington effectively blocked 1970s moves for gubernatorial appointment of DNR directors. Then-Gov. Bill Milliken backed off the idea.
Last week, the MUCC applauded creation of DNRE but opposed gubernatorial appointment of the director.
New MUCC Executive Director Erin McDonough, a native of Beaver Island, said:
"While the state's unfortunate economic woes have required our elected officials to take a hard look at saving state resources through restructuring, MUCC views this process as a key opportunity to rebuild a foundation for the conservation, wise use and management of Michigan's tremendous natural resources.
"As Michigan has witnessed these past few weeks, politics can be an ugly barrier to effective solutions -- MUCC is disappointed in the move to make the DNRE's director a political appointment and believes that sound, scientific management should continue to guide resource management in Michigan."
But a statement from the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter, Clean Water Action, Michigan Environmental Council and League of Conservation Voters said:
"This is a chance for Michigan to reclaim our lost leadership role in managing our truly spectacular natural resources."
The Farm Bureau and others in the ag community raged against having ag directors appointed by governors.
The Michigan Agri-Business Association said Granholm's order "guts the role of the Michigan Agriculture Commission, downscaling it from a public body with oversight and accountability functions, to one with a toothless advisory role."
My view: Accountability is best served when governors, as presidents do, have power to appoint all department directors.
Cox vs. Obama
Attorney General Mike Cox was watching TV at home Friday morning when he got the surprise, and perplexing, word that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize after a mere nine months in office.
So the contender for the 2010 Republican nomination for governor fired off this Twitter on what has become a worldwide debate: "Pres wins Nobel yet his vacillation on Afghanistan emboldens terrorists. If a Dem had to win, I wish it was Hillary, she has more spine."
After my editor alerted me to this, I asked Cox aides if this was indeed his tweet. They confirmed it, and said Cox also put his comment on Facebook, where, as of my query, of the 39 people who had responded, all agreed with him.
Detroit villains?
In an otherwise solid Oct. 5 cover story on "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell -- and how it can rise again," TIME magazine did an injustice to the late Mayor Colman A. Young and U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, longest-serving member in history of the House.
Daniel Okrent, in the first installment of a yearlong look at the city, wrote that Young, Detroit's first black mayor, "spent much of his 20 years in office devoting his talents to the politics of revenge." But the magazine, in a boldface caption under Young's picture, said he spent his entire tenure "playing the politics of retribution."
Not so.
When I asked Okrent last week (on a Detroit Free Press Web site live chat with him) if he objected to the magazine's distorted highlighting of his writing about Young, he said:
"Ah, me. It's a sad reality of publishing: headlines and the like are, inevitably, abbreviated and incomplete renderings of the complexities of a specific article. If we only had headlines, we have a pretty incomplete view of things, but without headlines, nobody would read most articles. I think Young accomplished quite a lot early in his tenure."
In his article, under a "Who Killed Detroit" headline, Okrent cited a Dingell Web site declaring "the working men and women of Michigan and their families have been Congressman Dingell's top priority." Okrent wrote: "I suppose he thinks he has served them well -- by resisting in succession, tougher safety regulations, more-stringent mileage standards, relaxed trade restrictions and virtually any other measure that might have forced the American automobile industry to make cars that could stand up to foreign competition.
"So by so ably satisfying the wishes of the auto industry -- by encouraging southeastern Michigan's reliance on this single, lumbering mastodon -- Dingell has in fact played a signal role in destroying Detroit."
Early in the online chat, which was replete with comments and questions on other Detroit issues that interrupted their exchange, Dingell asked Okrent: "How long has it been since you lived in Detroit and talked to people of the city who live and work here every day?" (The newspaper columnist hosting the session called Dingell's office to confirm it was indeed Dingell at the keyboard.)
Okrent: "I was in Detroit early in September for several days, and talked to about 60 people, all told. I also spent much of two weeks on the phone to many others."
Dingell: "How many pages did you read on (my) site? How extensively did you research the way (Dingell believed) regulation should go forward?"
Okrent: "I read quite a lot of the website, but even moreso went back and studied your voting record and public advocacy positions the past several decades."
Dingell: "Tell me what action of mine prevented the adoption (of) safety regulations, mileage standards or trade restrictions that you claim 'might have forced the American automobile industry to make cars that could stand up to foreign competition'?"
Okrent: "Your resistance to sharply increased CAFÉ standards around 1990-91."
Journalism is an ever more intriguing practice these days, what with monitoring of newsmakers on such things as Twitter, Facebook and live online chats on, of all things, the Web sites of newspapers.
George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.
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