ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – The City of Escanaba has been working on a way to support low-income residents and establish renewable energy sources. However, recent cuts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have put those plans on hold.
Through the EPA and Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the State’s Solar for All program is designed to help low-income households by establishing solar-generated power sources.
“The program is meant to provide 20% of low-income households’ annual energy needs,” explained Escanaba Electric Utility Director Gerald Pirkola. “What we proposed was a community solar garden. We estimated that approximately 600 households would have benefited from this program.”
With a City contribution of up to a million dollars, the Electric Department was set to receive a $1.8 million grant for the solar garden. That changed last month, when the EPA terminated Solar for All program funding.
“The EPA director put out a notice and actually canceled those grants,” Pirkola said. “We’re suspecting that the State will probably file a lawsuit against the EPA to try to get these funds back. It’ll be six months, eight months—hard to say—but we’re hopeful that this program and project will get resurrected.”
In addition to delaying assistance for low-income residents, the cancellation is also somewhat of an obstacle on the City’s path toward reaching the State’s renewable energy goals.
“For 2025, we need to have, I believe, 15% RECs—renewable energy credits,” said Pirkola. “In 2030, the RECs requirement goes up to 50%. In 2025, we’re supposed to have a contract in place and purchase renewable energy. We would need a much larger solar facility to meet all our RECs, but this would have helped provide some of those RECs for us.”
For families struggling to pay their energy bills, help is available through the Michigan Energy Assistance Program (MEAP).
“We have to collect $1.25 per month per customer, and those funds are sent to the State for this MEAP program,” Pirkola said. “Customers who meet the low-income household requirements, they would be eligible to take advantage of these funds. It starts in October.”
The City is also joining the Michigan Public Power Agency’s (MPPA) Energy Waste Reduction program, giving Escanaba residents a way to get some of their money back.
“It’s an energy rebate program for residential customers,” said Pirkola. “LED lighting, Energy Star appliances, they’ll be eligible for a rebate. The plan was approved at the last City Council meeting, and we are going to be signing an agreement with MPPA to administer a program. That program will go on for four years before we have to look at the Energy Waste Reduction Plan again.”
For more information on the MPPA’s Energy Waste Reduction program, click here. To see if you qualify for MEAP assistance, call 2-1-1 or click here.
