Undermining UP Clean Energy Standards

HB 4007 and 4283 would undermine Michigan’s Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act by exempting utilities that operate 13 methane gas-powered generators in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the state’s newly established clean and renewable energy standards. Under these bills, electricity produced and sold from those generators would inappropriately count towards Michigan’s clean and renewable energy goals through 2050 despite the energy not being clean, nor renewable.

These generators utilize fossil fuel methane gas fuel and generate greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution when they run.  By creating a carveout for these methane gas-powered plants, the bills would set back real progress toward Michigan’s clean energy and climate goals. The bills are a solution in search of a problem – bypassing the expert planning at the Michigan Public Service Commission; they also ignore the built-in flexibility already provided under the existing energy law. Michigan’s clean energy standards already provide utilities with many offramps and extensions to ensure affordability and reliability, making these bills not only unnecessary, but potentially damaging as they take off the table some of the best tools we have to drive down UP energy rates.