Environmental groups came to the capital yesterday to discourage new coal fired power plants from being built. The Department of Environmental Quality could permit 3 new plants and another 3 plants are being talked about. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports from the capital steps.
TRX1: Clean Water Action, Lone Tree Council, Progress Michigan and the Sierra Club created a carnival atmosphere to make their point. A tall man in a black suit and top hat sat above a pool of water. Passers by threw base balls and aimed for the button connected to the man’s chair.
AX1: “You don’t need any money for green energy. No money for jobs. I bet you don’t read your electric bill. Cuz you’re buying my dirty coal.”
TRX2: Bay City, Rogers City and Holland are waiting on the DEQ to approve new coal plants. Anne Woiwode is director of the Michigan Sierra Club.
AX2: “We have a long way to go in Michigan to get clean energy in place but we know for sure we’re not gonna get it if these coal plants are built.”
TRX3: The Sierra Club Coal expert is Bruce Nilles. He flew in from headquarters in Washington.
AX3: “Michigan is at the cross hairs, it’s really ground zero for the question nationwide which is are we gonna do the old way of doing business burning coal and producing a lot of pollution or do the clean energy route.”
TRX4: If you believe human beings are destroying the world they live in then you want to stop burning fossil fuels. Whenever possible. That’s what The Union of Concerned Scientists and Hot Flat and Crowded author Thomas Friedman believe. Bruce Nilles says clean energy is better for the economy too.
AX4: “all studies indicate you get many more jobs, on the order of 2 to 5 times more jobs to produce the same amount of electricity or if you’re actually saving energy through retrofitting buildings and helping people make their homes more energy efficient you create hundreds of more jobs. So that’s why there’s this wonderful alliance between environmentalists and labor. If you kick the coal habit you create more jobs and less pollution.”
TRX5: Kicking the coal habit is almost impossible for the next few years. Michigan’s renewable portfolio standard only requires 10% of the state’s energy to come from the wind or the sun by the year 2015. The other 90% will still be from coal, nuclear or natural gas. Clean Jobs might make more progress though.
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TRX6: Lloyd Lazotte was one of several vendors set up on the capital lawn. He showed off his tiny company’s solar panels made in Lawrence west of Kalamazoo. They sell for $14,000, then you get 30% back on your taxes and the cost comes down to $10,000. The panels can make you money thanks to the new Michigan laws on feed in tariffs.
AX5: “If there’s no one home during the day and hardly anything is on, it will feed power into the grid and public utilities that are regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission have to provide you with payment for any power you feed them at the same dollar per kilowatt that you pay them with you buy it from them. Consumers right now is charging 11 cents a kilowatt hour, they’re gonna pay you 11 cents a kilowatt hour for every kilowatt hour you feed them.”
TRX7: Legislators walked in and out of the capital all day. Phillip Pavlov is a republican from St. Clair Shores. Pavlov says trying to switch from coal to alternative energy is killing jobs.
AX6: “Well I would say that the federal energy policy is doing a good job of that right now with the cap and trade. I think people should take a serious look at what that’s gonna do to industry and manufacturing in the state of Michigan. It will put us out of the market to be competitive with manufacturing.”
TRX8: Representative Pavlov’s view was not heard back on the front lawn of the capital. Bruce Ling is from Comstock Park. He and Rebecca Shilt sang their song called Crawdad Shuffle.