Michigan Government

http://www.michigan.gov/

The easiest way to navigate this mega-web site is using the link to State Web Sites at the top of the page in the middle. Keyword searching (upper righthand side) extends across all state web sites and yields individual documents as well as web pages.

Michigan Department of Agriculture

http://www.michigan.gov/mda/

The Food and Agribusiness section features Michigan's food laws, means for starting a small business, Michigan's and the names of food companies. There are also farming statistics and licensing applications. See its Annual Report for problems.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/

Laws and regulations on air, land, waste and water pollution. Air section includes open burning information and eight-hour ozone maps. Brownfields, underground storage tanks, and landfills are subsumed under land pollution. Hazardous waste storage facilities and landfills are listed under waste. Water pollution refers to the Great Lakes, inland streams, and groundwater.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/

Covers all state park operations, wildlife management, hunting and fishing, private and public forests. Special section on ORVs and ATVs at http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10365_15070---,00.html

Michigan Office of the State Budget

http://www.michigan.gov/budget/

The Governor's Executive Budget since 2000 plus numerous state spending reports since the late 1990's.

Michigan Public Service Commission

http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/

Regulates private suppliers of natural gas and electricity in the state.

State Energy Office

http://www.michigan.gov/cis/0,1607,7-154-25676---,00.html

Promotes renewable energy in Michigan and presents numerous case studies of solar or wind energy on its web site.

Great Lakes Information Network
http://www.great-lakes.net/

Extensive links to economic, environment, health, trade, tourism and weather information for the Great Lake States and Provinces. Includes material on water pollution, invasive species, and water diversion.

Great Lakes National Program Office (EPA)

http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/

Reports, photographs, statistics, and EPA programs on the Great Lakes environment, biodiversity, and contaminants. Policies and reports on ecosystems and pollution.

International Joint Commission

http://www.ijc.org/

Organization resolving water boundary disputes between the United States and Canada. Web site includes numerous reports, press releases, and newsletter articles on environmental concerns. Use the search engine or look under Publications

Scientific controversies may have already appeared in the Legislative Analyses, in the State Government Reports, or the Great Lakes Reports. If not, you will want to check books and scientific journal articles using the sources listed below.

MIRLYN

http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu

Lists books, microforms, periodicals and electronic publications at the University of Michigan Library, though it does not index individual journal articles. Login with your uniqname and password in order to have a book retrieved from a remote location (North Campus, storage) or renew circulation. Sample basic search: "nuclear power plants" and future. Click on the title for a fuller record and the location for availability (e.g. on shelf, checked out).

Environmental Resources (University of Colorado)

http://www.pagetwister.com/cej/cejsearchform.cfm

Fantastic collection of links and abstracts to environmental web sites. Primarily scientific information including acid rain, invasive species, urban sprawl, and environmental organizations, nuclear energy. Links to federal government web sites and reports.

Proquest

http://www.lib.umich.edu/rrs/proquest.html

Indexes 2500 scholarly and popular journals from beginning with the 1980s. Includes science and social science titles. Sample searches include “factory farms,” “nonpoint pollution,” privatization and forest?, "energy policy" and "clean energy." The full text of most articles are available online. Use the "full text" link in the search results. If you only see an "SFX" link, the publication is probably not available onliine.

Michigan Bills

http://www.michiganlegislature.org/mileg.asp?page=Bills

Search bills introduced into the state legislature since 1997 by keyword, detailed subject category or bill number. EXAMPLE: 1997-98; orv or atv or snowmobile* Of the 55 search results, several became law. SB 0727 was vetoed by the governor but search results include text of the bill, several Senate fiscal analyses, and the hot-linked pages in the House and Senate journals on which actions and roll call votes occurred.

Michigan Compiled Laws

http://www.michiganlegislature.org/mileg.asp?page=MCLBasicSearch

Official version of all laws-in-force. Search for laws or constitution by keyword, law number or MCL citation. Advanced search includes additional strategies by history and legal challenges. Terminology within state law can be old-fashioned so consider browsing or searching within individual chapters, such as: Chapter 318 (State Parks), Chapter 320 (Forests), Chapter 323 (Water Resources), Chapter 324 (Natural Resources and Environmental Protection), Chapter 460 (Public Utilities), and Chapters 285-288 (Agriculture, Animals, Dairy). EXAMPLE: search Chapter 460, nuclear, for laws about nuclear power plants.

Michigan Administrative Code

http://www.michigan.gov/orr/0,1607,7-142-5698---,00.html

Text of all executive agency regulations in force. Searchable by department or number but not subject. Fortunately, the numbering system follows the Michigan Compiled Laws, so the regulations for nuclear power plants would be under R460. This is updated by the Michigan Administrative Code Supplement [http://www.state.mi.us/orr/emi/search.shtm], which is searchable by subject, e.g. snowmobiles.

National Conference on State Legislatures

http://www.ncsl.org/index.htm

Links to web sites of all state government legislatures. Background reports and new state legislation on agriculture, environment, natural resources, energy, and public health. Some of the NCSL publications are available in full text. You can also use this as an index for publications available from other sources, especially: State Legislatures (http://www.lib.umich.edu/cgi- bin/pqissues?11563 and NCSL LegisBriefs (http://web.lexis-nexis.com/stcapuniv/form/capital/s_ncslbriefs.html)

National Governors Association

http://www.nga.org/

Numerous reports on best practices for environmental and energy issues also provide a list of related think tanks and lobby groups.

State Capitol Universe

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/stcapuniv/

Search the full text of existing statutes for individual states or all states by keyword (e.g. state park and privat!). Search the full text or bill status of bills introduced in state legislatures since 1990 by keyword. Most state registers or regulations are also available except for Michigan.

Environment and Energy Daily/Green Wire

http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily.htm

Tracks federal legislation on the environment since 1996. Includes official publications, bills, reports, analyses, and news articles. Includes effect of environmental decisions on individual states. EXAMPLES: snowmobiles and yellowstone, "nonpoint source pollution"

Congressional Research Service Reports (National Library for the Environment)

http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS/index.cfm

CRS provides exemplary non-partisan analysis of issues facing Congress. This premier collection of environmental reports provides solid information on numerous environmental topics and at least one model for the state policy analysis. Less likely to have information on lobby positions but will include extensive bibliographies.

Congressional Universe

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/

Indexes Congressional bills since 1989 by keyword; use bill number to determine whether bill passed into law. (EXAMPLE: nonpoint source pollution) Use the Laws/U.S. Code section for the text of all existing federal laws in force (EXAMPLE: national park and privatiz!) and Regulations/Code of Federal Regulations for all existing regulations in force (EXAMPLE: invasive species). Congressional committee hearings found under the CIS Index are a terrific source for alternative viewpoints and lobby group positions. Selected text is available on the web. All hearings are located in the Documents Center on microfiche and many in the Documents Center in paper format. (EXAMPLE: corporate farms).

Michigan Lobbyist Registration Act (Secretary of State)

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1633_11945---,00.html

Text of the Michigan Lobbyist law, regulations on who can be lobbied and how much spent, and a data base of how much lobbyists spent on individual government officials. To obtain a complete list of all 2515 Michigan lobbyists, use the Lobby Search Engine (http://miboecfr.nicusa.com/cgi-bin/cfr/lobby_srch.cgi)

Associations Unlimited

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/umuser?db=AU-31

Describes associations in the United States, their membership, budget, publications, and web sites. Do a Custom Search using Michigan as place and the appropriate Subject Descriptor, e.g. Michigan and Fishing.

Michigan Board of Realtors

http://www.mirealtors.com/

Little information on its web site but interested in land use issues.

Michigan Chamber of Commerce

http://www.michamber.com/

Advocacy group for business. Legislative agenda on its web site as well as links to the Michigan Forest Products Council.

Michigan Environmental Council

http://www.mecprotects.org/

Environmental protection lobbyist group, especially land use and water pollution.

Michigan Farm Bureau

http://www.michiganfarmbureau.com/

Numerous legislative positions on its web site, including livestock and poultry health.

Public Interest Research Group in Michigan

http://www.pirgim.org/

Influential public environmental lobby group especially concerned with mercury pollution, land use, energy, clean water, and air pollution.

Travel Michigan

http://travel.michigan.org/

Official state government web site promoting tourism. Lists recreational activities throughout the state as well as individual motels, campgrounds, and restaurants. Use the Select A City tab at the top of the page to choose an area. You will usually find a link to its tourist council.

FirstGov

http://www.firstgov.gov/

Portal to the massive amount of information available from the federal government. Use the agency A-Z index in the upper lefthand corner or the search engine in the upper righthand corner. Note that you can also limit searches to a particular state.

Chemical Scorecard/Environmental Defense Fund

http://www.scorecard.org/ranking/

Ranks states, counties and zip codes by amount of chemical pollution. The top 100 counties and zip codes are ranked for both the U.S. and individual states. Click on area to obtain data on pollution by chemical or health effect. Includes maps of an area and reports on individual polluters. Lists street address and zip code of facility. Example of map

Superfund National Priorities List

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm

EPA's priorities for toxic waste cleanup. Click on state maps to identify concentrations of polluters. Example. By clicking on a symbol, you can obtain background information on the polluter. You can also search the data by address, zip code, or type of problem. The resulting maps (example) provide streets but not street names. Links to the individual polluter.

Michigan Senate

http://senate.michigan.gov/

Senate legislative maps and lists of Senators by district with links to their web pages. The web pages usually provide their legislative interests. Also links to Senate committees, their chairpersons and membership. The chair of a committee is extremely important in the path of legislation.

Michigan House

http://house.michigan.gov/

Lists state legislators by district and house committees. However, the information and web pages, when they exist, are minimalist. Look to the caucus web sites for policy information.

Project Vote Smart

http://www.vote-smart.org/

Go to the Current Elected Officials link at the top of the page and then choose Michigan. Click on the name of the legislator to get a brief biography and lobby group ratings on various issues. There are no voting records or campaign finance records for state officials. However, a few have taken the National Political Awareness Test.

Grace York, Coordinator, Documents Center
The University of Michigan Library
With Denise Schoene and Jennifer Nason-Davis
govdocs@umich.edu