Earlier this week, when he won his second term, Governor Rick Snyder thanked his family, he thanked his supporters and he gave a shout-out to the Great Lakes.
“I still like to remind my fellow governors, four out of five Great Lakes prefer Michigan,” he joked.
So what do policy experts expect from Snyder in his next term?
James Clift is with the Michigan Environmental Council.
"I think what we’ve got is a confluence of a number of things coming to a head,” he says.
He says energy will be a big issue for Snyder.
“Is there going to be enough power in this region of the country to serve our needs in the upcoming years? Some federal regulations coming into play, with the utilities making some very large decisions about the energy future, and the clean energy legislation plateauing off in 2015.”
Clift is talking about our renewable portfolio standard. It requires Michigan utilities to get 10 percent of their electricity sales from renewable sources by 2015.
Snyder has said he’d like to see that standard raised – as long as it makes business sense.
Governor Snyder is also expected to unveil his water strategy in the next six months. Rick Pluta is the state capitol bureau chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network, and I spoke with him about the water strategy for today's Environment Report. You can hear that interview above.
