Michigan

Attorneys general in five states are pushing back against utility-industry resistance to regulatory acceptance of utility-scale battery storage, a fast-growing business that poses a fresh threat to traditional power-generation models.

One district has garnered $1 million annually from wind energy, enough to hire 18 new staffers who are helping turn around a trend in which dropout rates were growing.

Consumers Energy, which has more than 6 million customers, won regulatory approval for plans to invest heavily in renewables while phasing out traditional electricity-generation plants.

A Michigan energy company aims to hire more minority workers in solar-industry construction as it takes advantage of tax credits built into federal Opportunity Zone designations.

Municipal government operations are on track to get all their electricity from renewable energy by 2020.

The company moved up expectations for modernizing its aging power generation model with plans to close three coal-fired plants sooner than previously scheduled. 

A former mayor and city council member who now leads a nonpartisan national group that champions market-based economic-transition solutions, endorses a proposed solar farm in Mendon Township, Mich. The $29 million, 150-acre project would generate more than $20,000 in monthly local tax revenue over 23 years. “Renewable energy developments provide significant benefits to local communities. That’s why jobs in the clean energy industry and new solar developments continue to pop up across the state.”

A conservative energy group in Michigan has published a report calling for expansion of the state’s renewable energy as a way to expand the economy and capitalize on market trends. The report endorses a 15 percent renewable energy standard by 2021 and 20 percent by 2027. “It’s not an unrealistic target, given the trajectory and rapid advances in renewables in Michigan,” said a spokesman for the group.

A new survey finds that most voters in five swing states—Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia—favor state policies mandating 100 percent reliance on renewable energy for electricity generation. The survey results “serve as a potential warning to candidates to support renewable-energy policies or face possible voter backlash.”

Consumers Energy, the biggest utility in Michigan and an important customer of Wyoming mines owned by Arch Coal, Peabody Energy, and Cloud Peak Energy, is phasing out its coal-fired generation in favor of other power sources. The utility supplies electricity to more than 60 percent of Michigan’s 10 million residents. “We believe we’re going to be on the right side of history on this issue,” said Consumers CEO Patti Poppe.