Michigan’s effort to end coal production and replace it with solar energy is being aided by a woke public utility that has agreed to stop its use by 2025, this despite the state’s abundant energy resources, including coal, natural gas, and nuclear.
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced an agreement between the state and Consumers Energy Company, which says on its website that it provides natural gas and electricity to 6.6 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents.
The website said it is “leading the clean energy transformation:”
Leading this transformation is the opportunity of our generation. We’re proud of our pledge to deliver industry-leading zero-coal, net-zero carbon and renewable energy for our customers and planet. Our success in this important work depends on innovating as well as partnering with you, to use energy wisely with energy efficiency and demand response programs. This is our moonshot moment. The best part? We get to lead it for our customers, our state and the planet!
The Center Square website reported on the agreement:
Attorney General Dana Nessel entered a proposed settlement with Consumers Energy Company to end its use of coal by 2025 — 15 years earlier than originally planned.
The proposed settlement with Consumers Energy is in its integrated resource planning case, (Case No. U-21090), which is subject to final approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Consumers Energy filed its new resource plan in June 2021, which proposes closing early all remaining coal plants statewide. A previously approved plan in 2019 included studying the closure of two of Consumers’ remaining three coal plants.
The settlement agreement provides for building nearly 8,000 additional megawatts of solar energy by 2040, by when Consumers Energy aims to generate 90% of its electricity using clean energy resources.
Consumers Energy also agreed to donate $5 million to a fund that aides low-income utility ratepayers.
“Not only is this settlement a win for our environment, it’s also a win for Michigan ratepayers who have struggled to stay current on their bills,” Nessel said in a statement. “This agreement was truly a collaborative effort from all involved parties and a symbol of what we can achieve when stakeholders work together to create positive change.”
According to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) Michigan is rich in energy resources and after natural gas and nuclear, coal provides the most energy for state residents.
Renewables only provide 11 percent of the state’s electricity.
A Fast Facts portion on the EIA’s website about Michigan said:
- Michigan has 44 natural gas storage fields with almost 1.1 trillion cubic feet of underground storage capacity, more than any other state and almost one-eighth of the nation’s gas storage capacity.
- In 2020, natural gas generated the largest amount of Michigan’s electricity for the first time, surpassing coal, which fell to third after nuclear power. Natural gas accounted for 33 percent of the state’s net generation, while coal’s share declined to 27 percent.
- Renewables provided about 11 percent of Michigan’s electricity net generation in 2020, and wind energy accounted for three-fifths of that power. Michigan ranks among the top 15 states in wind-powered electricity generation.
- In 2019, Michigan was among the top five states in residential sector petroleum use and had the largest residential sector propane consumption in the nation.
- Michigan’s largest hydroelectric facility is the Ludington pumped-storage plant on the shores of Lake Michigan on the Lower Peninsula. With a nameplate generating capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts, it is one of the largest pumped storage power plants in the world.
And according to a website that aggregates weather across the country, about half of the year skies in Michigan are cloudy or partly cloudy.
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