A specially assembled “solar work group” of state regulators, officials from the state’s two largest utilities, and clean-energy business advocates is considering ways to deploy more solar energy in Michigan that help, not hurt the firms’ bottom lines; protect ratepayers’ wallets while offering them an entrepreneurial opportunity; and boost the state’s solar manufacturers and installers.
A specially assembled “solar work group” of state regulators, officials from the state’s two largest utilities, and clean-energy business advocates is considering ways to deploy more solar energy in Michigan that help, not hurt the firms’ bottom lines; protect ratepayers’ wallets while offering them an entrepreneurial opportunity; and boost the state’s solar manufacturers and installers.
Hundreds of people turned out last week to pepper local officials and employees of Enbridge, Inc. about the 60-year-old oil pipeline running under the Mackinac Straits. They wanted to know what’s being done to prevent underwater leaks, and how a rupture would be contained before it gravely damaged one of Michigan’s most beautiful places. By the end of the meeting it was clear that opponents had more questions than Enbridge managed to answer.
Officials and dozens of residents in Holland, Mich., are working to implement a Community Energy Plan after the city began approving work groups for the effort in August 2012. The CEP, would, among many other things, expand the snowmelt district and channel waste heat to nearby commercial buildings. The 40-year strategy calls for cutting the community’s energy consumption by up to 60 percent and moving HBPW to cheaper, cleaner natural gas and non-polluting wind and solar power.
Clean energy advocates weren’t expecting a whole lot from Gov. Snyder on energy issues during his State of the State address. But we were at least hopeful, given the pre-speech scuttlebutt, that he would say something substantive and positive about them. That didn’t happen. Snyder literally spent six seconds on energy. His address was a missed opportunity for a very positive shout-out about the energy work done over the past year.
MLUI and a number of community leaders in northern Michigan penned this letter to Gov. Rick Snyder to thank him for his work on energy over the past year and urge action in 2014 on a clean energy future for the state.