The first time I went to a meeting at Bushnell Township Hall, in Montcalm County, Michigan, I literally drove by it twice, thinking it was a toolshed.
It’s on a concrete slab about 20 by 30 feet, four prefab walls and a roof.
No running water, no toilet.
Inside, an odd collection of cast off card tables, and a dozen or two 1940s vintage wooden folding chairs.
But when the very ordinary collection of folks on the township board approved a permit for a solar farm recently, I got so choked up I could barely speak, knowing that they had run a gauntlet of threats, harrassment and abuse, while doing the very hard and demanding work of putting together a workable, and desperately needed, solar ordinance for the community.
Greenville Daily News (paywall):
Ground was broken this week on Fish Creek Solar Park, a 554-acre project running through Bushnell and Evergreen townships.
The DTE project is one of three new solar parks recently approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission and funded by DTE customers who are enrolled in MI Green Power, a voluntary renewable energy program. Once completed, the 132-megawatt solar park will feature nearly 320,000 solar panels and will generate enough clean energy to power about 30,000 Michigan homes on an ongoing basis, according to DTE.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the construction site just off Condensery Road east of Sheridan on Wednesday morning. The solar park runs through Bushnell Township on the south side of Condensery Road and Evergreen Township on the north side.
Wednesday’s weather was sunny and warm but extremely windy as DTE Vice President of Energy and Renewable Development Joe Mussallam took to the podium to share some remarks for the occasion.
“As I’m standing here in the wind tunnel, as the vice president of renewable development, I have other ideas after the solar park,” said Mussallam in a nod to wind energy, resulting in chuckles from the 50 or so people in attendance. “We’re going to start with the solar park though.”
John Jones is a landowner in Bushnell Township who has signed on to the project. He thanked DTE for having the initiative to make the solar park a reality.
“It’s not every day something like this comes to the township,” Jones said. “There are various groups that are for and against. The people serving the township have to expend a lot of extra time and energy to do this. Obviously there’s incentives for me to do this and there’s incentives for DTE, but also I like to do things with the community in mind.
“There’s not going to be a lot of odor emitted from it,” he said. “Once it’s built, there’s hardly going to be any noise or dust or traffic. And yet there’s going to be some continual benefits for a long time. So it seems to be a good fit. I’m a proponent of solar energy. I guess if there’s people out there who don’t like it, I guess we just have to agree to disagree. At the end of the day, I think it’s a good fit for the state and the country.”
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Meanwhile, this week marks the deadline for the signature gathering efforts of the group “Citizens for Local Choice” – formed in opposition to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s suite of climate legislation passed last fall.
In particular, the Citizen’s group, formed with support from fossil fuel groups, wanted to do away with siting reforms that would create a path solar, battery, or wind developers to gain approvals at the state level if local officials block projects.
In this case, local boards worked closely with DTE to compromise and come to agreement on the issues of greatest concern to local residents.
Having attended a few of those meetings, where everyone in the room in support of solar was threatened by thuggish yahoos, I have some idea of the gauntlet that Bushnell township officials had to get thru to finally permit the project.
The “Local Choice” groups were expressing unhappiness on social media following the groundbreaking.
I wonder if people like Bill Reynolds have any joy in their lives.
clearly not.
Big part of MAGA phenomenon is a nationwide joy deficit.