Energy
MLUI just wrote to state Rep. Aric Nesbitt and the House Committee on Energy Policy, urging them to expand, not eliminate, Michigan’s fabulously successful renewable energy and energy optimization standards. Could you read our letter and then email your own note to Rep Nesbitt’s committee in the next few days? ...
Power plants waste a lot of energy—most of it as heat fleeing up their smokestacks. But what if the plants captured that wasted heat and put it to good use—producing more electricity, warming nearby buildings, or assisting industrial processes?...
We’ll always need a rock-solid, unshakably constant supply of power. But today there are other ways to do that besides merely burning more fossil fuel.
New distributed energy technologies, new grid control systems, and new demand-side energy services should be part of what has been an under-informed, truncated conversation about meeting Michigan’s future electricity needs....
Gov. Rick Snyder recently unveiled his long-awaited energy policy goals, and they are good ones. But with the most conservative Republicans in Lansing pointed in a different direction, success requires party moderates to work with Democrats, who back a platform resembling the governor’s....
The "Clean, Renewable, and Efficient Energy Act" of 2008 has been a tremendous success. But incredibly, there are politicians at the Capitol who are considering eliminating the Energy Optimization policy — not because it isn't working, but because they don't like the idea of government "mandates." Repealing the current Energy Optimization policy would instead be eliminating the most effective energy efficiency policy Michigan has ever had....
Want to invest in a hot technology, earn a decent rate of return, create Michigan jobs, and battle climate change—all at the same time? Thanks to an innovative state law that allows “crowdfunded” investments by state residents in new or existing businesses, Michiganders could soon do exactly that by crowd-investing in clean energy projects, particularly solar power systems, located at certain kinds of businesses and institutions....
If further proof is needed that the global transition to clean energy is underway, you only need to look at three things that happened this month. ...
Peter Boogaart knows exactly what he’ll do when he retires later this month. The longtime Holland-area resident is leaving the Ottawa County Community Action Agency after six years of helping low-income families tighten up their homes to cut their often budget-crushing energy bills. Now the 66-year-old home efficiency veteran will ramp up his already strong volunteer involvement in the Holland Community Energy Plan’s home efficiency retrofit project, which aims to cut gas and electric consumption of each of the city’s 7,000-plus homes by up to 50 percent over 40 years....
Holland, Michigan's forward-looking Community Energy Plan is steadily gaining momentum and public support for transforming an old Lake Michigan port city into a world-class clean energy champion....
When it comes to building power plants, Dan Nally has been around the block, the state, and the planet a few times. Now he has a doozy of an assignment: project director for construction of the Holland Board of Public Works' new gas-fired power plant....
2015 will be a watershed year for energy policy in Michigan – and few states will be watched as carefully by energy policy experts and interested observers....
It is getting to be crunch time for wind power development in Michigan, so next week’s Michigan Wind Energy Forum, scheduled for Tuesday at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Center in East Lansing, is arriving right on time....
Green roofs—roofs covered with soil, grasses, and plants rather than shingles or metal—could soon become a more common sight in Grand Traverse County and other parts of the state....
Several area entrepreneurs say they see another way to use PACE—which stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy and treats the loans, which are private, like property taxes. They believe PACE can help them grow their companies, which are manufacturing and selling a brand-new, innovative, high-efficiency classroom heater and ventilator known as Aristotle Air....
Abhilash Kantamneni, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Michigan Technological University, has an unexpected, spot-on message for Michiganders living in the cold, snowy, and, when it comes to energy costs, pricey Upper Peninsula: There is a large, untapped, economically smart opportunity to develop rooftop solar systems for homes and small businesses in the U.P....
When she was a high school sophomore, Jane Lively rode the bus from Traverse City to Washington, D.C., with 55 other concerned citizens to join the February 2013 Forward on Climate rally. Now, 20 months later, Lively, a senior at Glen Lake High School and the daughter of Jim Lively, MLUI’s program director, is even more involved in the battle against climate change....
Most climatologists agree that, thanks to global warming, powerful storms are likely to get worse. So, as climate change works its steadily more destructive ways on modern civilization, building a power system that can stand up to more powerful, more frequent storms is crucial. ...
MLUI staff members were among 56 climate activists to travel from northern Michigan to New York City this weekend for the largest climate rally in history. ...
Climate | September 18, 2014 | By MLUI
Fifty-six northern Michigan climate activists will hop on a bus this weekend for a whirlwind trip to New York City to take part in a historic climate change rally. The Sierra Club, national climate advocacy group 350.org, and several national environmental organizations are organizing this weekend’s march in New York City to coincide with United Nations summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution....
The Solar Powering Michigan conference on Sept. 12 in Traverse City could be arriving at just the right time, as more lawmakers and advocates are exploring ways to make sure solar is part of Michigan's clean energy future. Organizers say the conference is the first of its kind in Michigan and is all about creating new jobs. ...
