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.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. Many leading climate scientists and economists assert that the best first-step to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change from global warming is to enact Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation.
On the evening May 19 at 6 p.m. in MLUI’s large conference room, Lisa Del Buono will speak on behalf of the Citizens Climate Lobby about that group’s advocacy for a national “fee & dividend” on carbon emissions (also described as a ‘carbon tax’).
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?
Power plants waste a lot of energy-most of it as heat fleeing up their smokestacks. But what if the plants captured that wasted heat and put it to good use-producing more electricity, warming nearby buildings, or assisting industrial processes?
We’ll always need a rock-solid, unshakably constant supply of power. But today there are other ways to do that besides merely burning more fossil fuel.
New distributed energy technologies, new grid control systems, and new demand-side energy services should be part of what has been an under-informed, truncated conversation about meeting Michigan’s future electricity needs.