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The two-year TCSaves program was—and is—good news for Traverse City: It kept local contractors and building supply wholesalers busy. Now it’s saving energy dollars for homeowners and keeping some of those dollars in town, rather than sending them to dista...
You’d never know it driving by, but tucked into a nondescript warehouse district just south of town is an office and production space so airy and dazzling that it would turn heads in the hippest urban enclaves. The comfortable digs and lighting at Britten...
In a quick and quiet decision, Michigan environmental regulators have given Wolverine Power Cooperative another year to break ground on its long-delayed, highly controversial Rogers City coal plant. But stricter coal plant emission limits, soaring coal-po...
In an historic vote, the Holland City Council has pre-empted longstanding plans to build a highly controversial coal plant in the city and, instead, approved a natural gas-fired power plant that will likely provide more power than the town actually needs....
Reading the text of Governor Rick Snyder’s Special Message on Energy and the Environment, which is a bit more detailed than the remarks he delivered last Wednesday, it’s clear he’s serious about energy efficiency and, to some extent, renewables like wind ...
The ruckus over renewables isn’t over: Proposal 3’s advocates sound even more determined to boost renewables goals beyond their current “10 percent by 2015” target and make Michigan a jobs-rich, global, renewables manufacturing leader. And on Wednesday, G...
With Gov. Rick Snyder set to deliver his Special Message on Energy on Nov. 28, several Republican state representatives are declining to say whether they will renew their attack on Michigan’s “energy optimization” law, which saves residents money by requi...
There’s a brand-new wind turbine spinning in Leelanau County. The sparkling white machine high on a hill near Northport may be Michigan’s first-ever “community renewable energy” project, and it offers a fresh spin on Proposal 3, which requires 25 percent ...
I was recently mugged by this commercial against Proposal 3, a/k/a the “Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs” proposal. There’s a spinning wind turbine, a doomy voice, and a meter rocketing from zero to $12 billion in 30 seconds flat—all to scare anyone who uses...
Three states with renewable energy standards similar to those in Michigan’s Proposal 3—Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado—are seeing little or no rise in electricity prices, undermining claims that the ballot measure will sharply increase energy costs....
Still mulling over whether Proposal 3, the renewable energy standard ballot initiative, will skyrocket your electric bill as utility ads claim? Well, here's a true story: Consumers wants to raise residential electric rates by an average of more than $11 p...
If Michigan voters approve Proposal 3 on the November ballot, Norway's Dokka and several hundred other firms in the state’s renewables manufacturing sector will have good reason to expand their operations. Prop. 3 would more than double Michigan’s current...
If current negotiations work out, the Wyandotte Municipal Services utility soon will be getting a startling 30 percent of its power from renewable sources—five percentage points more and 13 years earlier than what Michigan utilities will have to achieve i...
They’ve confirmed the petition signatures and approved the ballot language. Now, it’s up to Michigan voters: Should the state boost its mild-mannered renewable energy standard and position itself to become one of the country’s, and the world’s, leading ma...
The Holland Board of Public Works released its long-anticipated report comparing the economic, environmental, and social effects of a new coal-fired plant with those of a new natural gas-fired plant, and the news is not good for coal. Now the utility want...
Did you know that wind power is a big hoax? It's the latest rhetorical leap for the windbagger community as they try to drive those big ol’ turbines out of Michigan and into the sea—although, mind you, certainly not into the Great Lakes....
As Michiganders prepare to vote on expanding the state’s renewable energy production, one community’s approach has led to continued strong support for their new wind farm, Michigan’s largest....
If Michigan wind power has a godfather, it must be Rich Vander Veen. His company Wind Resource LLC and its 133 turbines are now spinning across four townships and 30,000 acres of farmland in northeast Gratiot County....
Last month, the Holland City Council unanimously approved forming six "working groups" to begin implementing several parts of the Community Energy Plan. But most council members again declined to endorse the entire plan....
