Michigan House Republicans begin push to eliminate state’s clean energy standard

Michigan Republicans on Tuesday began hearing testimony on a set of policies that would roll back Michigan’s new clean energy laws, including a 100% clean energy standard.

House Energy Committee Chair Pauline Wendzel (R-Watervliet) and Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes) presented House Bills 5710 and 5711, arguing that the policies would help address energy reliability and affordability, blaming cost increases on the state’s clean energy requirements.

Wendzel’s HB 5710 would require the Michigan Public Service Commission to require the consideration of all energy resources within its integrated resource planning process, which mandates that companies set long-term plans for meeting customers’ energy needs. It also removes requirements for energy companies to consider environmental justice impacts and a long-term forecast of greenhouse gas emissions in their integrated rate plans.

“It tells the Public Service Commission, in statute, that reliability and affordability come first,” Wendzel said. “That’s it, plain, clear, simple.”

Outman’s HB 5711 eliminates the state’s clean energy standard, which required energy companies to adopt a 100% clean energy portfolio.

“This bill does not ban renewable energy,” Outman said. “Wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, storage and emerging technologies will continue to be built when they make sense for the grid and when they provide the best value to the ratepayers. What this bill does eliminate is the mandate. Every resource should compete based on performance, reliability and cost of ratepayers, not political preferences written in the statute.”

Reps. Julie Brixie (D-Okemos) and Joey Andrew (D-St. Joseph), however, noted that Outman’s bill would lower Michigan’s cap on distributed energy generation to 1% of total yearly energy sales within a company’s service area. They argued that would act as a de facto ban on who can access resources like rooftop solar.

Rep. Tonya Myers Phillips (D-Detroit) also questioned how the bills addressed affordability.

“I don’t see anything in this bill, or anything in this conversation that addresses utility accountability,” Meyers Phillips said. “Our bills are high because the utility companies charge us a lot and there aren’t enough guardrails to prevent that.”

Wendzel said the two bills were only one part of the Republican’s answer to these concerns, and that more legislation would be coming.

Testimony on the bills will continue, and the committee will vote on the policies at their next meeting, Wendzel said.

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This article, “Michigan House Republicans begin push to eliminate state’s clean energy standard,” has been republished from the Michigan Advance under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.