Being from Michigan, I was always aware of how important the automotive industry was to that state. However, its governor seems to have forgotten that cars require reliable sources of reasonably priced energy to run.
Therefore, I found it very disturbing that she has signed an order that essentially bans the use of still very legal fossil fuels as of 2040 in an ill-considered piece of legislation: The Orwellian-named “Clean Energy and Jobs Act.”
The Clean Energy and Jobs Act includes several bills that would improve state energy efficiency requirements and streamline permitting processes for solar and wind projects. It would also mandate that state utilities shift 100% of electricity sales to clean energy sources by 2040.Michigan has recently seen a boost in sustainable work, with an estimated 5% growth in clean energy and transportation jobs last year. Whitmer said the state’s new clean energy package will add over 160,000 more clean jobs to Michigan’s expanding green economy.“We will make American energy with American workers earning family-sustaining wages,” Whitmer said before signing the bills into law in Detroit on Tuesday.
The legislation relies on technology not fully developed or otherwise successfully deployed at any energy generation plant.
Senate Bill 271, one of the bills included in the package, establishes a renewable energy standard of 50% by 2030 and 60% by 2035, meaning electric utilities meet at least that share of their electric generation capacity with renewable energy credits or direct renewable energy generation. That mandate supersedes previous laws requiring utilities to achieve a 15% renewable energy standard through 2029.In addition, under the bill, utility providers must meet an 80% clean energy standard by 2035 and a 100% clean energy standard set to be achieved by 2040. The clean energy standard would include natural gas-fired generation with 90% carbon capture, a nascent and expensive technology that hasn’t been deployed at any power plant nationwide.
Michiganders will soon have to contend with “public good” land grabs as Whitemer’s band of green energy barons build wind and solar farms through vast tracks of Michigan’s pristine woodlands to achieve these unreasonable goals.
Meeting the 50% renewable energy goal by 2030, and 60% five years later, will require a massive buildout of utility-scale renewable energy resources in Michigan.Just over 17,000 acres (6,880 hectares) of land in the state are currently used for wind and solar generation, according to Dan Scripps, chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission. Scripps told lawmakers during a Nov. 7 committee hearing that an additional 209,000 acres (84,579 hectares) of land will be needed for projects to hit the 60% renewable energy goal.To achieve this, Michigan lawmakers will give the state’s Public Service Commission the authority to supersede local governments for the approval of these large projects.The provision has quickly become the package’s most contentious element. A local government coalition, including the Michigan Association of Counties, has strongly opposed it, with the Michigan Township Association arguing it stifles the input of local officials and residents in communities where these facilities are set to operate for the next several decades.
Perhaps the most irksome aspect of Whitmer’s “carbon free” vision she intends to impose on the state is that she is not averse to using private jets. There was a bit of a scandal in 2021. She flew down to Florida three times in a private jet.
Doing the math, as I sometimes do here at Legal Insurrection, she took three 3-hour flights between the Great Lakes and the Sunshine State. Let’s say her planes used 200 gallons per hour for each hour of flight. That’s 1800 gallons of carbon-emitting gasoline right there! I use about 300 gallons of gasoline each year for what I do…So, her three trips put out as much carbon as six years of mine.
Suppose she campaigns for President at some point, which I strongly suspect she will do. In that case, I will keep track of the emissions from private just use and the hot air she will expel. I will explain the myriad of expensive failures and unintended consequences of buying into green energy pseudoscience.
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