Detroit takes on Alabama

I'd like to thank the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Sure, it's only supposed to look after the environment in Michigan. But they've generously given up that task to take on the thankless role of monitoring Alabama's air quality. Yes, Alabama is 1000 miles away from Michigan, but they just care that much about air quality that they filed comments with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to try and block the construction of a Hyundai plant near Montgomery, a Hyundai plant that Michigan had previously, selflessly, tried to take upon its own overburdened air.

Hey, I'm an environmentalist. But I'm also a realist. Alabama is a poor state and we need jobs. I hope that ADEM will for once do its job and make sure that the Hyundai plant stays within the rules. And if it doesn't, that the EPA will make it. But the biggest difference here isn't that the emission standards are any different than they are in Michigan. It's that the EPA won't let Michigan grant permits on its own, probably because they're busy trying to keep auto plants from being built in other states.