LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – State lawmakers are moving forward with bills to protect the natural gas energy plants in the Upper Peninsula. Two bills from U.P. lawmakers would amend the MI clean energy plan to keep the plants in operation.
A majority of the energy used in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula comes from 13 reciprocal internal combustion engine (RICE) generators located around the central U.P.. The state’s clean energy plan begins to phase them out because of the natural gas involved. The generators provide a base load that keeps major mines running and the light and heat on. U.P. contractors are paying for the generators that went online in 2019 through 2050.
Before the laws were passed, state Senator Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Township) and Representative Dave Prestin (R- Cedar River) tried to introduce changes that would exempt the generators, but they weren’t adopted. Now that the state House is under Republican control, lawmakers are hoping to have better luck the second time around.
“This energy precipice that we are coming towards is going to be a dead end for us,” McBroom said. “Those costs are going to make it impossible for these companies to decide to locate in the Upper Peninsula and are going to be a devastating blow and set us back decades from the decline the ups has finally started to turn a corner from.”
The House Energy Committee held a hearing for the bills that would extend the lives of the generators, only calling testimony in favor of the legislation. People working with mines and utilities across the peninsula traveled down to Lansing to share how they would be impacted if the generators were turned off too quickly without a backup plan.
Initial surveys estimate renewable energy surcharges for companies like the Tilden mine could rise to over a million dollars a month. Prestin said rate hikes for large companies like Billerouid could be over $300,000 a month, a regular business over $3,000, and a regular household’s utilities could increase by $70 a month.
“It’s not so much reckless legislation as a reckless timeline; we’re looking for some accommodation in this law, not a rewrite of it,” Prestin said. “The timeline as the legislation that’s passed doesn’t allow us to successfully navigate from these these internal combustion gas power generators we cited in 2019 to a more reliable base load energy supply such as nuclear.”
Prestin said during his time on the Alger-Delta Electrical Cooperative Board of Directors, he learned utilities operate in decades, not years. He and the other U.P. lawmakers are worried that shutting the RICE generators would mean a sharp increase in utility costs for the Michiganders who already pay the most for their energy. He warned that any other option, pulling electricity from Wisconsin or the lower peninsula or building new generators, would have the same impact.
The bills still have to be approved by the committee before going back to the House for a vote. Prestin said he’s optimistic they’ll see the same support in the Senate as well.
