Energy
The Nature Conservancy and the State of Michigan said this week that new conservation easements and acquisitions would protect 271,000 acres of wilderness and natural area, including the Fox and Big Two-Hearted Rivers....
But if you’re driving one of those new, very cool electric vehicles, GM’s Volt, or Nissan’s Leaf, which will start rolling off assembly lines later this year, where will you “fill up” with electricity instead of gas?...
Traverse City Light and Power just took a step toward unleashing a powerful jobs and income machine: It installed a new “net metering” policy, allowing TCL&P’s customers to generate limited amounts of renewable energy and sell it back to the utility....
There is widespread consensus that real action must be taken now to decrease the impact we are having on our environment and combat climate change. To help guide the actions our community takes, SEEDS is launching a Climate Action Planning Survey....
So far, our answers to Traverse City Light & Power’s questions about our “20-20″ proposal have explained that saving a watt is the same as generating a watt and is much cheaper, so spending on efficiency makes way more sense than spending on new power plants....
During that time, I was immersed in the glories, the sorrows, and the constant that is coal. ...
I want to tell you about a place called the Yellow Dog Plains, way up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Its waters are pure and true and they run into the Great Lake, mother Superior....
Air permit denied! I had long thought that when I finally read those words I would be filled with happiness and joy. The reality was that I cried. And then I got really angry. ...
Those first and last points won the day with the state, which determined that Wolverine has other, cheaper, cleaner options for obtaining power, and that the plant would increase the cost of its customers’ electricity by close to 60 percent....
My understanding of how best to grow renewable energy in Michigan-and across the country-keeps me climbing up some pretty steep learning curves....
The cheapest way for Traverse City Light & Power to meet much of its customers’ future demands for electricity is, as I wrote last time, to flat-out buy them things that significantly reduce their demand for electricity....
The most crucial thing Traverse City Light & Power folks asked us about our new special report, 20-20 by 2020: A Clear Vision for Clean-Energy Prosperity, was its call for helping customers cut their energy consumption by 20 percent in just 10 years....
As they thumbed through their copies of our hot-off-the-press report, 20-20 by 2020: A Clear Vision for Clean-Energy Prosperity, board members asked us all sorts of things....
But we call for much stronger energy efficiency efforts, more wind power, inclusion of solar power, and promotion of local energy entrepreneurship, particularly among our region’s schools, community investment groups, and private concerns.
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The debate over a proposed biomass facility in Traverse City has caused a great deal of concern among many Traverse City-area environmentalists, and rightfully so....
There’s been a lot of controversy recently in Traverse City about whether the local electric utility, Traverse City Light & Power, should build a wood-burning biomass plant as part of its plan to make 30 percent of its electricity using renewable sources....
Sadly, I’m blogging about this because the glorious Menominee River, like the Salmon Trout River near Big Bay, is now under attack....
Last month’s state hearing for a coal ash landfill that would house millions of tons of toxic coal ash near Lake Huron attracted more than 100 people to the Rogers City High School gymnasium....
Citizens in Iosco and surrounding counties recently sent more than one thousand signatures to Gov. Jennifer Granholm opposing the attempted forced sale of 475 acres of state forest to a golf course developer....
Here’s a question for those who want to cut their carbon footprint: What is the better wine choice-a bottle of French Bordeaux, or something from the Napa Valley?...
