Traverse City Light and Power just took a step toward unleashing a powerful jobs and income machine: It installed a new “net metering” policy, allowing TCL&P’s customers to generate limited amounts of renewable energy and sell it back to the utility.
This week a state House committee will review two bills aimed at supporting “Complete Streets” initiatives across Michigan.
But we call for much stronger energy efficiency efforts, more wind power, inclusion of solar power, and promotion of local energy entrepreneurship, particularly among our region’s schools, community investment groups, and private concerns.
There’s been a lot of controversy recently in Traverse City about whether the local electric utility, Traverse City Light & Power, should build a wood-burning biomass plant as part of its plan to make 30 percent of its electricity using renewable sources.
Last week, the Traverse City City Commission hosted a panel of top community leaders for a program called “TC Tomorrow.”
The accord that many world leaders finally embraced here in the wee early hours last Saturday morning, following a marathon of late-night meetings, negotiations, and political wrangling, amounts to nothing more than a handshake agreement to “keep trying” to reduce carbon emissions around the world.