Guardedly optimistic that the Michigan legislature may pass much needed clean energy siting reform. I’ve been posting and reposting the interviews I’ve done with farmers, landowners, local officials and clean energy advocates around the state, showing that what has been going on in local venues across the midwest over recent years, is very much a mirror of what we see happening in Washington DC today. As a small group of radical chaos agents throws a tantrum in the nation’s capitol, anyone who stands up to them starts getting intimidation, harassment, and “credible death threats.”
That’s what I’ve been hearing from farmers and citizens in places like Stanton, Blissfield, and Azalia Michigan, as well as other communities around the midwest, where I’ve been able to visit in recent years to push back on the tide of misinformation. I’ve been getting updates for several days on progress of the bills thru the House, and several hopeful messages over course of today – but I’ve felt for some months now that when Governor Gretchen Whitmer put her credibility on the line with these bills,(see below) that there would be immense pressure on Democrats, who hold narrow majorities in both legislative houses, to go along. So after weeks of dithering and uncertainty, the word was that the Guv and legislative leaders were knocking some heads and whipping members into line. There is a suite of bills that include 100 percent carbon free electricity by 2040(ish), but for my money, the critical piece is the siting bill, without which all the rest is just aspirational.
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, all have some version of this process. When I visited Wisconsin this past summer, it seemed as though there was broad acceptance that the state was the final arbiter, with plenty of latitude for local communities to weigh in, fine tune projects, and even cut their own side deals with developers. Illinois passed this reform some months ago, and so far, according to economist David Loomis, things seem to be working out.
As recent polling in Michigan and Nationally has shown large majorities of voters favor expanded clean energy and climate action, these measures have been increasingly inevitable. The “antis” are heavily influenced by the fossil fuel industry and climate denial, so clearly have a blind spot in this respect. They will push back, and I expect that in some cases, threats and bluster will continue. But I’ve spoken to enough local officials to know that, for many of them, this is going to come as a major relief.
A Michigan House committee on Wednesday advanced legislation that aims to speed up the development of wind and solar energy in Michigan by shifting permitting control from local government to the state.
In a 9-7 party-line vote with one Democrat abstaining, the House Energy, Communications and Technology Committee approved House Bills 5120–5123, which now go to the full House for consideration.
Identical bills were introduced in the Senate last week.
The vote came after impassioned testimony from bill opponents, with one of them comparing the package to the emergency manager law that stripped towns like Flint and Detroit of the power to self-govern during times of financial crisis.
“It’s an unfair and unjustified power grab,” said Clint Beach of Fowlerville, borrowing words that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used in 2011 to oppose the use of emergency managers.
By supporting the energy siting legislation, Beach said, Whitmer “is trying to do the exact same thing that she so vehemently opposed just a few short years ago.”
Bill proponents, meanwhile, tout the package as a needed antidote to local conflicts that have doomed wind and solar projects across the state. Without a streamlined state process for vetting prospective renewable energy developments, they argue, Michigan may fail to swap fossil fuels for renewables by midcentury.
That’s the deadline by which scientists say humanity needs to stop adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, or risk increasingly dire consequences from climate change.
“If every individual local unit of government can block those projects, we end up without the projects that we need for Michigan,” Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), told lawmakers during a hearing last week.
Under the bills, Scripps and two other commissioners would be tasked with approving or denying large renewable projects in the state. As part of that process, they would have to consider what public benefits each project provides, as well as how much renewable energy has already been installed in a given community. Developers would be required to sign agreements spelling out the benefits they’ll provide to the local community. The bills would also require developers to bargain with labor groups and pay prevailing wages.
Committee members made a series of amendments to the package before Wednesday’s vote, clarifying that the measures would not give the state power to use eminent domain for wind and solar developments and spelling out the public benefits a development must provide to the public. Another amendment would require wind and solar developers to cover up to $150,000in costs local governments incur while fighting a proposed project’s approval.
“We’ve heard your concerns about how we participate in this process,” said Rep. Jenn Hill, D-Marquette, who authored two of the amendments.
As Michigan utilities strive to decarbonize their energy supply, they plan to build out thousands of acres of wind and solar developments in the next few years.
It’s expected to take a small fraction of Michigan’s farmland to achieve those goals. But opponents expressed concerns that an uneven distribution of projects could overburden some towns.
The solar permitting bills are part of a broader Democratic push to speed up Michigan’s energy transition. The centerpiece of that effort is legislation that would put state-regulated utilities on a 2040 deadline to go carbon-free.
