LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A new group with members from more than five townships around the state came to Lansing  to resist further various economic developments in the state sharing concerns with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and legislators on Tuesday. 

The Economic Development Responsibility Alliance of Michigan (EDRA of MI) has a primary focus on raising awareness about a myriad of community concerns regarding new Electric Vehicle project developments. 

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The group also wanted to send a clear message to the MEDC and its involvement in the development of Electric Vehicle plants and similar facilities. 

“We are Michiganders. We are neighbors. We are tired of our taxpayer dollars being used to abuse our communities,” Founder and Big Rapids resident Marjorie Steele said, “Although there may be little else some of us have in common beyond that, the abuse is so severe, at this point, that this common ground alone is enough. Enough for us to unite. We are done being bulldozed by the MEDC.”

For Greene Township Resident and farmer Larry Finkbeiner , the concerns were not simply the potential environmental and farmland damage but a combination of factors. 

“Do I not like the fact that they’re using farmland? I hate the fact that they’re using farmland,” he added, “You look at a handful of things, the environment, the problems with cancer causing chemicals they are using, you look at where they’re doing it and who is doing it.” 

He also suggested that rather than building in new areas, particularly farmland, use areas that have already been used for similar purposes.

“It’s gonna bring 2,200 jobs, every battery plant in Holland and Grand Rapids said oh we’re gonna come in and make somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 jobs, and they all ended up being mostly automated.” 

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“We’ve had big plants in the region before like when the solar company went into Greenville,” he said, “just a few years later there is this huge building that has to be cleared out and remediated, and we’re stuck doing it.  What are we going to use that for?” 

Steele concluded the rally by criticizing the various state projects, among them Gotion, as “tyrannical economic development and [an] abuse of taxpayer dollars.” 

“In Detroit, it’s ravaged schools, libraries and it’s stolen hard-earned income from blue collar workers and community churches. In Big Rapids, and Mundy, and Marshall, and so many more, it threatens to literally drain the Great Lakes, turning this beautiful, abundant state into a toxic desert,” she said, “And yes: in many of these, we face selling vast acreages of prime agricultural and residential land to faceless, obtusely structured multinational corporations which pose serious threats to our communities, and our national security.” 

The group comprised of Michiganders from across the state also shared its mission. 

 “We are united in our fight against the overreach of economic development, in order to protect the self determination of our communities, our land, and our nation’s most precious natural resource: the Great Lakes,” according to the group. 

Earlier on Tuesday, a House panel voted to give another $120 million towards the Ford Motor Company, Ford Blue Oval Battery Plant project in the Marshall area.