I

magine this: It’s Wednesday, 
10 a.m. (Thursday if it’s 2016 
 

or later).

I watch as a 

volunteer trips over 
her feet crossing 
through two lanes 
of traffic at the 
North 
University 

and Fletcher Street 
intersection. 
She 

drops a handful 
of 
candle 
wicks 

in the middle of 
the 
intersection 

as she does a run-
walk to the Diag. 
She’s on her way to the Art Activity 
Zone, which is sponsoring The Rudolf 
Steiner School of Ann Arbor in their 
“Burning Bright at the Fair,” an art 
project that involves the creation of 
beeswax candles.

She snatches them up, right next to 

my front car bumper as I wait at the 
stop sign in the crowded intersection. 
The streets of Ann Arbor are slowly 
coming alive as Fair goers trickle 
in from the outskirts, unloading 
in hoards out of AAATA buses and 
Trinity Park and Ride Shuttles.

I took the wrong way to work, 

veering right to take Washtenaw 
because I thought it might not be as 
busy as my usual Packard Street route.

That was a huge mistake.

***

The Ann Arbor Art Fair actually 

consists of four separate art fairs 
combined for ease of services — the 
Ann Arbor Street Fair, the State Street 
Art Fair, the Ann Arbor Summer Art 
Fair and Ann Arbor’s South University 
Art Fair. The eldest, the Ann Arbor 
Street Fair is celebrating its 56th year. 
The others are 48-, 46- and 16-years-
old, respectively.

Attractions at the Art Fair are highly 

expansive. Demonstrations on North 
University 
include 
printmaking, 

ceramics, photography, drawing and 
wood projects. Artist exhibits, in all 

sorts of mediums, throughout all four 
fairs can be located on the official art 
fair map. The Diag will be host to the 
Art Activity Zone, where at least five 
“kid-friendly” art projects open to all 
of the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The 
Art Fair Main Stage is located on the 
corner of Willard and Church Street 
and will feature artists such as the 
Cadillac Cowboys and Ann Arbor’s 
Keri Lynn Roche.

This year, the Art Fair has four 

featured artists. Chuck Wimmer, 
Katie Hofacker, Dylan Strzynski and 
Ralph Rankin, that will be featured 
by Ann Arbor’s South University Art 
Fair, the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, 
the Ann Arbor Street Fair and the 
State Street Art Fair, respectively.

***

The streets are filled with booths, 

tents and stands, selling food, cheap 
crafts and cliché paintings meant for 
lakeside cottages. A variety of fair-goers 
crowd the streets, mingling with artists 
and other pedestrians as they make 
their way through the collections.

I’m finally able to get to the parking 

spot I rent from a student who lives on 
Packard Street. I arrive at work after 
an eight minute speed-walk through 
a field of white tents. Maynard Street 
is covered with artist exhibits and 
stands with cute, but cheaply made 
earrings for sale at $10 a piece. I arrive 
at work and my coworker, running 
around hurriedly behind the counter, 
looks frazzled, her hair falling out of 
her ponytail in small, ombre wisps. 
Six people wait in line at the register 
as the two employees on shift scurry 
around, trying to finish their tasks 
and help the customers that keep 
piling in.

I grab an apron and jump in.
The day goes by in a blur. Our 

sales are higher than they’ve been all 
summer, and our stock is depleted. 
Twelve people came in asking for a 
glass of water; our store policy is to 
only give water glasses to customers 
who have bought something. I caved 

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EMMA KERR
EDITOR IN CHIEF

AARICA MARSH

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

DEREK WOLFE

MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@umich.edu

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

4

Wednesday, July 15, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

Allowing 
consumers 
to 

choose between established 
energy sources, which are 
extremely costly to the envi-
ronment 
and 
are 
unsus-

tainable, 
and 
renewable 

energies, which aren’t harm-
ful to the environment, but are 
from fledging industries and 
thus pricier, would likely result 
in a decrease in renewable 
energy consumption. The gov-
ernment must mandate renew-
able energy consumption or 
consumers will choose cheaper 
energy sources, regardless of 
the effects on the environment. 
Consumers cannot be expected 
to weigh the long-term effects 
of global climate change and 
the 
benefits 
of 
affordable, 

renewable energy sources in 
the future over their present 
needs to make ends meet; the 
government must step in to act 
on behalf of the best interests 
of its people.

Furthermore, 
the 
energy 

bill introduced by the Senate 
includes potentially devastat-
ing changes to net metering. 
Currently, energy customers 
who produce renewable energy 
through solar panels are cred-
ited for electricity that they add 
to the grid in a process called 
net metering. If the new energy 
bill is made into law, custom-
ers who produce solar energy 
won’t be able to use the energy 
they make from their solar pan-
els. Instead, the power that is 

produced can be sold to energy 
companies at a wholesale rate 
and net metering as we know 
it will be obsolete. Amy Heart, 
from the industry trade associ-
ation Alliance for Solar Choice, 
claims the new bill “dramati-
cally reduces the amount of 
solar that’s going to be sold in 
Michigan because it reduces 
the economic value of it.”

In March, Gov. Rick Snyder 

released an energy message 
that said he’d like to see 30 to 40 
percent of Michigan’s energy 
needs met by a combination of 
renewable and efficient energy 
by 2025. Similarly, Snyder said 
it’s possible for Michigan to get 
19 percent of its energy from 
renewable sources. Yet, like 

All in for the Art Fair

FROM THE DAILY

Dirty energy, bad policy 
 Not updating the renewable energy mandate is a bad decision
M

ichigan Republican lawmakers have introduced a set of bills in 
the Senate that seek to eliminate the mandate for renewable 
energy, which currently requires that 10 percent of energy 

provided by utilities in Michigan be renewable. These bills would allow the 
use of renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines, to be determined 
by the market. Furthermore, these bills prioritize “clean” energy over 
renewable energy, and consider fossil fuel generation technology to be 
“clean,” so long as “at least 85 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions 
captured and permanently sequestered or used for other commercial or 
industrial purposes that do not result in the release of carbon dioxide 
into the atmosphere.” These policies work against renewable energies 
and flagrantly disregard the importance of fighting against global climate 
change and the government’s role in doing so. It’s necessary for the 
government to promote renewable energies through mandates to allow 
them to develop into more cost-efficient and practical technologies. 
Failing to do could allow these technologies to fall into disuse, doing a 
great disservice to the environment and the humans who inhabit it.

the Senate’s new bill, Snyder did not 
include a renewable energy mandate in 
his message. Instead, Snyder is focused 
on reducing energy waste through pro-
grams that help citizens update fur-
naces, water heaters, insulation, etc.

Snyder and the Michigan legisla-

ture, while valiant in their efforts to 
benefit all stakeholders, are misguided 
in their solutions. Without a compensa-
tory reward, it’s unlikely that ordinary 
citizens who are focused on pressing 
issues outside of climate change will 
create the “demand” they’re supposed 

to create. After all, in 2014, a Gal-
lup poll found United States’ concern 
about climate change has dropped, 
with only 24 percent of respondents 
worrying a “great deal.” Michigan 
needs renewable energy because, no 
matter how aware people are, climate 
change is a major issue that needs 
strict, enforced policy in energy-eating 
nations like the United States. Snyder 
and the legislature must create better 
energy policy that benefits consum-
ers and also actively promotes clean, 
renewable energy.

AARICA 
MARSH

