Renewable energy experts are applauding Gov. Jennifer Granholm's calls to nearly halve fossil fuel consumption by 2020, but they say much more needs to be done to make her vision of an economically thriving, green Michigan a reality.
The governor in her state of the state address Tuesday proposed a goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels for producing energy by 45 percent by 2020. By increasing the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency efforts and new technologies, Granholm reasoned, the state could capitalize on good-paying green-collar jobs.
Nice goal, but experts weren't convinced.
"The proof is in the pudding," said David Marvin, who chairs the energy law department at Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap PC in Lansing. "I think we have not yet done what we need to do to facilitate those projects to reach that goal."
Granholm outlined five steps that she said would help the state meet the new goal. They include allowing residents and businesses to sell electricity generated through on-site renewable energy systems back to the utilities &ndash known as a feed-in tariff &ndash and creating a so-called Michigan Energy Corps that would use unemployed workers to weatherize homes, schools and old buildings.
"The nation is moving to a new energy future, but if we are willing to think strategically and act boldly, like we have in other sectors, Michigan can lead job creation in this area, too," Granholm said.
The governor also said she wants the Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Public Service Commission to review the need for new coal-fired power plants and whether there are plausible alternatives.
That proposal doesn't sit well with Consumers Energy, which has applied for a state air emissions permit for a new coal plant in Bay City.
Consumers spokesman Dan Bishop notes that state regulators in early 2007 released a report outlining the need for new coal-burning plants to replace outmoded facilities and meet heightened demand for energy. He added that the rise of plug-in electric vehicles in the coming years will require a robust electric generating system.
"If Michigan does not build new clean coal plants to meet customer demand somebody else will," Bishop said. "The growing need for electricity still remains, it's just that we'll be exporting the jobs and money to our neighbors in the Midwest."
The issue of whether to build more coal plants in Michigan is likely to grow even more contentious in the coming years, observers said. If the federal government follows through on enacting a carbon tax, coal may suddenly become much less attractive economically.
"Her only choice is not to build more (coal) because she doesn't want the state to get penalized or the utility structure," said Tom Moran, CEO of TSNergy Inc., a renewable energy systems integrator and project developer in Troy.
The state last fall enacted renewable portfolio standards as part of a larger energy package mandating that the state derive 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Both Moran and Marvin criticize the new laws, saying they give Consumers and DTE, the state's two largest utilities, a 90 percent share of the electricity market.
That makes it tough for private developers to get a foothold, and the new laws include no protections for ratepayers, who will see rates climb dramatically, they say.
"The rate payers do not have access to the same project funds as the utilities to reimburse for the cost of constructing solar or wind power assets at our homes or businesses," Moran wrote in an e-mail response. "How does this closed-loop, monopolistic structure foster clean energy expansion within the state and create jobs?"
While Granholm's goal of reducing fossil-fuel consumption may be attainable, questions remain over how the state achieves it.
Marvin said the state is late in coming to the alternative energy game and must do more to spur large-scale alternative energy developments. He'd like to see more streamlined permitting processes, a more proactive request-for-proposal process modeled after European nations and greater focus on the potential for offshore wind power in the Great Lakes.
"I'm encouraged obviously by the focus on alternative energy but I'm somewhat disappointed that the governor didn't mention initiatives to actually implement large-scale alternative energy projects," Marvin said. "The focus has been on specific manufacturers, which is great…
"But manufacturing equipment is different from installing it and using it."
