All the fussin’ and fightin’ over Michigan’s energy future hits a crucial round today or Wednesday: The state House votes on two lousy energy bills, HB 4297 and HB 4298. So it’s time to give your state rep a well-informed earful about clean energy.
Articles by Jim Dulzo
Phony Energy ‘Markets’ Need Mandates from Lansing
The debate among state lawmakers over how best to update Michigan’s renewable energy policies reveals a stark difference. Some in Lansing are loath to actually require our monopoly utilities to add more renewables or help customers cut energy waste. But others insist that only strong legislation that forces utilities to provide additional clean energy will get the job done. History favors the pragmatists.
Rep. Nesbitt: Save, Don’t Sink, MI’s Clean Energy Progress!
MLUI just wrote to state Rep. Aric Nesbitt and the House Committee on Energy Policy, urging them to expand, not eliminate, Michigan’s fabulously successful renewable energy and energy optimization standards. Could you read our letter and then email your own note to Rep Nesbitt’s committee in the next few days?
Snyder needs help pushing energy goals
Gov. Rick Snyder recently unveiled his long-awaited energy policy goals, and they are good ones. But with the most conservative Republicans in Lansing pointed in a different direction, success requires party moderates to work with Democrats, who back a platform resembling the governor’s.
Crowdfunding Could Brighten Michigan’s Clouded Solar Future
Want to invest in a hot technology, earn a decent rate of return, create Michigan jobs, and battle climate change-all at the same time? Thanks to an innovative state law that allows “crowdfunded” investments by state residents in new or existing businesses, Michiganders could soon do exactly that by crowd-investing in clean energy projects, particularly solar power systems, located at certain kinds of businesses and institutions.
Peter Boogaart: On-bill financing key to Holland’s home retrofits
Peter Boogaart knows exactly what he’ll do when he retires later this month. The longtime Holland-area resident is leaving the Ottawa County Community Action Agency after six years of helping low-income families tighten up their homes to cut their often budget-crushing energy bills. Now the 66-year-old home efficiency veteran will ramp up his already strong volunteer involvement in the Holland Community Energy Plan’s home efficiency retrofit project, which aims to cut gas and electric consumption of each of the city’s 7,000-plus homes by up to 50 percent over 40 years.