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•At the same time, media owners were downsizing newsroom staffs and cutting reporting budgets.
Environmental beats frequently were among the first to go.
• Faced with these pressures, journalists were more inclined to tune out the messages coming from the
environmental community. Lacking new ways to tell the stories, reporters tended to downplay or ignore them.
By The Mid-1990s, ANew Story
By the mid-1990s, a convergence of events marked a turning point for the public interest regarding Antrim
Shale development:
• In March 1995, six grass roots environmental groups and a Manistee County township formed the
Michigan Energy Reform Coalition (MERC), launching a statewide initiative to reduce environmental and
economic harm from the drilling.
•Also in March 1995, the Michigan Environmental Council, an alliance of more than 40 state
environmental organizations, elevated oil and gas development to a top priority.
• In July 1995 the newly-formed Michigan Land Use Institute hired a full-time coordinator to manage the
MERC project. With this dedication of staff time and resources, the environmental community was able to
more effectively focus its actions and disseminate its views on a statewide basis. This decisive action began to
yield crucial results almost immediately.
• In August 1995, MERC disclosed that state regulators had privately negotiated a generous subsidy
allowing the oil and gas industry to write off its production costs before paying royalties for drilling on public
lands. The disclosure led to sustained media attention on Antrim development, and then to a year-long DNR-
ordered moratorium on leasing of public lands.
• In November 1995, MERC disclosed that the DEQ was about to approve Antrim gas drilling permits in
the spectacular and revered Jordan Valley, which has been off-limits to any kind of development for more than
20 years. This proved to be another high-profile opportunity for critics of the Antrim gas rush to make their
case.
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Public pressure and media reporting on the proposal was significant
enough to cause the company to withdraw its permit applications for the
Jordan Valley, but not before the issue attracted the attention of
lawmakers.
• In the spring of 1996, a package of 11 reform bills was introduced
in the Legislature to address most of the concerns raised by critics of
Antrim development.
• In May 1996, after facing more than 450 people at a public hearing
in Gaylord, the DNR announced it would change its leasing policy.The
agency later went on to reduce the state drilling subsidy by 65%, and
initiate an audit to recover millions of dollars it believed companies had
improperly withheld from the state.
• During the summer of 1996, MERC joined with the Michigan
Townships Association to organize four statewide public meetings on the
legislation that attracted 1,100 people.
• In the fall of 1996, MERC intervened to block a private developer
from gaining DEQ permits to drill for Antrim gas in the Jordan Valley.
During a DEQ Administrative hearing in Lansing, the Department of
Natural Resources publicly applauded the coalition's work and
welcomed its support to keep the Jordan free from drilling.
• With each policy initiative, public attention to Antrim development
increased. In the winter of 1996-97, oil and gas drilling in northern
Michigan was a lead print and broadcast story. In a five-week span, the
Detroit Free Press wrote four separate editorials opposing Antrim drilling
in the Jordan Valley.The Traverse City Record Eagle identified oil and
gas development as a top legislative issue.
•The attention finally attracted a public response from the Engler
Administration. On January 28, 1997, Governor Engler specifically
mentioned the Jordan Valley dispute in his State of the State Address,
and proposed to protect Michigan's "very special, irreplaceable, unique
areas."
It was the first time the Governor had publicly entered the debate
over Antrim gas development. The Governor's notice represents the best
opportunity yet for the environmental and conservation communities to
press for substantive new policy approaches to reduce the damage fromAntrim drilling.
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