Auchtoon!

Most workday mornings, my alarm goes off at 5:00, and I pop on the TV to get the local weather report. In the 10 to 15 minutes that the TV is on, I’ll invariably see multiple commercials for online gambling and casinos.

This mystifies me. Early morning risers cannot possibly be the target demographic for, say, sports betting. And yet, the ads and sponsorships are quite literally everywhere — they are rolling in so much money that they can afford to saturate the market. With A-list celebrities, no less! (C’mon, Jon Hamm — do you really need that money?)

Look, so-called sin taxes are the path of least resistance whenever politicians are strapped for tax revenue. So it’s not surprising last year when the state government compromised on a 24% wholesale tax on marijuana to close the gap on roads funding. But they had to know that the recreational cannabis industry in Michigan was already teetering on viability — liberal licensing of dispensaries (especially in border state communities) had created signficant overgrowth ripe for contraction. The wholesale tax is pushing many off the cliff, and with it, tax revenue for local communities.

Meanwhile, the FanDuels and DraftKings of the world are obviously swimming in cash. Of course, this is also why they can afford the best lobbyists.

Recent Michigan news headlines:

• Feds renew order to keep J.H. Campbell coal plant open
• Steam billows from Michigan nuclear energy plant, marking a restart milestone
• Michigan plans to reissue Line 5 permit amid federal review, court fight

So here we are in 2026, and our discussion about energy seems to revolve mostly around technologies and solutions from previous centuries. Worse, technologies and solutions that actually have arrived (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.) are still put by many in the “not quite ready” category.

My younger self would be disappointed. It’s not like I really expected flying cars by this point, but cleaner, cheaper energy did seem like an achievable goal.

The current Secretary of State (SOS) in Michigan, Jocelyn Benson, is also a candidate for governor in the upcoming election here in Michigan. Of course, one of the duties of the SOS is managing elections, and this raises some questions.

To get ahead of those questions, Benson has outlined an “election oversight conflict of interest policy” or the catchier “firewall policy.” It specifies that Michigan elections are administered by local clerks, and state-level functions are carried out by nonpartisan civil servants in the Bureau of Elections. Benson’s conflict of interest policy largely involves the bureau keeping its work private from Benson until decisions have been finalized.

Still, all voters are right to ask questions. Benson is a Democrat, and some Republican gubernatorial candidates have voiced their concerns. But understand, in 2019 then-SOS Ruth Johnson ran as a candidate and won a race for state Senate. Was there a problem with that?

And if the concern is untoward political bias, suggesting that the U.S. Department of Justice should run Michigan elections (as candidate Aric Nesbitt has) may not be the high horse you want to be riding.

Michigan received a fair bit of national attention this week as everyday citizens, political pundits, and our billionaire overlords all attempted to read the tea leaves of our special election to fill a Michigan Senate seat. As it turns out, a Democrat retained the seat, so that means… the Straight of Hormuz will open next Tuesday. (Place your Kalshi bets now and cut me in if you win.)

In reality, the result is that Democrats retain a slim majority in the Michigan Senate while Republicans remain in the slim majority in the House. And we’ll see what happens in November.

The general lament about this situation is that the Legislature is likely to accomplish very little (at least without compromise. So, like I said, very little.)

It could be worse, though. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, several southern states with GOP majorities are looking to redistrict before the midterms to eliminate the few districts that now elect Black Democrat representatives.

They defend these actions with: “We are doing this to eliminate racism.” Uh-huh. Clearly their goal is to gerrymander a GOP majority for the U.S. House. As Westley said to Count Rugen in The Princess Bride, “We are men of action. Lies do not become us.”

I realize that Michigan Speaker of the House, Matt Hall, is a Republican, that the President of the United States is a Republican, and that the Republican Party has succumbed to a complete mind meld with President Trump. So it’s no surprise that Hall has been leading efforts to kneecap renewable energy here in Michigan just as Trump has been actively doing the same at a national level.

And yet, I’m still exasperated. With gas currently heading toward $5/gallon, it seems particularly ill-timed to be looking for ways to limit our energy options. Especially because renewables (and especially wind and solar) are viable, low-cost sources of electricity now with great potential for technology and scaling to lower costs in the future. So even if you don’t believe in climate change (or science in general), the economics are enough to win the argument.

Michigan has a lot of challenges that need our attention — stagnant wages, poor quality healthcare, dismal education performance, the Pistons teetering on the edge of playoff elimination. Limiting our energy options should hardly be considered a priority.