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Thursday, April 17, 2008 Michigan House Passes Renewable Energy Program
LANSING - It might not have been a rolling blackout, but it certainly caught everyone's attention Thursday when the lights went out on a gaggle of lobbyists outside of the Michigan House chambers at the same time lawmakers were in the middle of voting on a package of bills dealing with renewable energy. While power in the lobby was restored within minutes, the intensity of lobbying efforts throughout the day did not cease on legislation that creates a renewable portfolio standard for Michigan, requires compliance with energy efficiency programs and limits how many customers can go to alternative suppliers for their electricity needs. After working on the legislation for over a year, the House sent the Senate HB 5524 (78-30), HB 5525 (81-18), HB 5548 (86-21) and HB 5549 (84-21). Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) applauded a bipartisan group of legislators who played a key role in crafting the package, saying, "today is proof Lansing can work in a bipartisan fashion." Governor Jennifer Granholm followed that sentiment, saying: "I want to praise the House of Representatives for its bipartisan approval of this comprehensive energy package. These bills will diversify our economy, spur economic development, and create thousands of jobs in the fast growing renewable energy sector. I look forward to working with the Senate to finalize this package." Rep. Frank Accavitti (D-Eastpointe), chair of the House Energy and Technology Committee, said that as the bills head to the Senate he expected them receive a "warm reception" and for his counterpart, Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton), to "take a good, strong look at it and adjust some numbers up or down." Rep. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek), minority vice chair of the committee, said he looked forward to having the Senate "do their job and make the bills even better." Accavitti was quick to disarm attacks that the Senate would take up part of the package that provides tax credits to Hemlock Semiconductor in a bid by the state to keep the company in Michigan, but that the other bills would languish. Nofs said he hoped to see them on the governor's desk by at least the end of the year, but hopefully sooner. Proponents of the legislation say it will cost electric users less in the long term than if lawmakers do nothing because the state will have certainty that new power plants will be built, renewable energy resources will be tapped and there will be less of a reliance on other states and foreign oil for power. They also said it will create jobs. Rep. Kathy Angerer (D-Dundee) said the energy efficiency component alone should spawn 8,000 jobs in the first five years after the law would go into effect. And those lawmakers said they were ready to take their message over to the Senate. Rep. David Palsrok (R-Manistee) said, "All of us in the House are prepared to go across the hallway and work." But there still remain critics to the legislation including House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) who said the package will increase costs for working families. Mr. DeRoche said some of his members voted for the package because it contained economic development bills important to their districts, referring to the Hemlock Semiconductor bills. But DeRoche said Patterson and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) have told him the Senate will deal with the Hemlock bills separately from the rest of the legislative package. Asked whether his members felt pressure to vote for the bills given that the Michigan Chamber of Commerce stepped up its efforts to gain support for the bills, DeRoche said everything became easy when his members realized they were voting on vehicle bills. "These are not the bills that will be moving on," he said. DeRoche was not alone in his criticisms, as alternative energy suppliers have been arguing for months that the certainty for power in the state can be found in their sector and not just with the utilities. The Customer Choice Coalition, which has voiced the loudest opposition to the bills also has said it will end up raising rates on consumers. They were joined by the Michigan League for Human Services, which said in a statement, "(HB 5524) poses a major risk for consumers, especially to seniors on fixed incomes and low income households, while protecting the interests of investors and shareholders of our two large private-sector utilities. The bill has the potential to increase rates by as much as 30 to 40 percent. Further, the bill puts the burden for paying for new power plants, whether needed or not, on customers, not on management or investors. Customers would begin paying for the plants even before they are open and generating energy." Under the legislation, no more than 10 percent of the total load in a utility's territory could opt for choice. Customer choice is currently about 3 percent in Detroit Edison territory and 2 percent in Consumers Energy, but it had been as high as 20 percent. The legislation requires that the current 15 percent surcharge on commercial customers, and the smaller surcharge on industrial customers, that subsidizes residential rates be eliminated over five years. The state's electric and natural gas utilities would have to implement energy efficiency programs and electric service providers would have to produce or purchase 10 percent of their power through renewable energy resources by 2015 under the bills. And electric utilities would have to meet energy savings in 2008 and 2009 equivalent to 0.3 percent of the total annual weather-normalized retail electricity sales in kilowatt hours in 2007. That would increase to 0.5 percent in 2010, 0.75 percent in 2011 and 1 percent in 2012. Natural gas utilities would have to meet a standard of 0.1 percent in 2008 and 2009, followed by 0.25 percent in 2010, 0.5 percent in 2011 and 0.75 percent in 2012. All energy efficiency plans would require approval from the Public Service Commission. As the House voted on the bills, there were some other hiccups besides the lighting going out. When the chamber broke voting on legislation that would provide Michigan Business Tax credits to Hemlock Semiconductor based on the amount of energy the company uses and picked up voting on the electric choice measure, Rep. Martin Griffin (D-Jackson) surprised everyone by requesting that the bill be passed for the day. Griffin said later he made the request after a substitute to the bill was quickly dropped before lawmakers, and he wanted the weekend to get feedback on it from people in his district. But he didn't get that chance, so he voted against the bill. He was one of four Democrats to do so during the 15 minutes the board was open; joining him was Rep. Marc Corriveau (D-Northville), Rep. Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) and Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland). The bill garnered support from the rest of the Democratic Caucus, along with GOP members: Rep. Dick Ball (R-Bennington Twp.), Rep. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), Rep. Brian Calley (R-Portland), Rep. Bruce Caswell (R-Hillsdale), Rep. Bill Caul (R-Mount Pleasant), Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer (R-Bellaire), Rep. Ed Gaffney (R-Grosse Pointe Farms), Rep. Goeff Hansen (R-Hart), Rep. Dave Hildenbrand (R-Lowell), Rep. Kenneth Horn (R-Frankenmuth), Rep. Joe Hune (R-Hamburg), Rep. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), Rep. Marty Knollenberg (R-Troy), Rep. Phil LaJoy (R-Canton), Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Midland), Rep. Tim Moore (R-Farwell), Mr. Nofs, Rep. Paul Opsommer (R-DeWitt), Mr. Palsrok, Rep. John Pastor (R-Livonia), Rep. John Proos (R-St. Joseph), Rep. David Robertson (R-Grand Blanc), Rep. Tory Rocca (R-Sterling Heights), Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), Rep. Howard Walker (R-Traverse City) and Rep. Chris Ward (R-Brighton). The Hemlock bills (HB 5972 , HB 5973 , HB 5974 , HB 5975 , HB 5976 and HB 5977 ) received a rosier reception from lawmakers as they were passed unanimously, save Rep. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Twp.), who voted against the last bill. The other hiccup came in the form of drafting error that forced lawmakers to take nearly a two-hour break before being able to vote on the energy efficiency measure, HB 5525. As amended on the floor, the bills are now all tie-barred to one another, meaning one couldn't go into effect without all of them being signed into law. The bills also add $1 million to the PSC to hire 25 full-time employees to deal with the changes to the law. Municipal solid waste facilities were added the definition of renewable energy, and the PSC could not increase rates because of a loss in energy consumption under the efficiency bill. Also sent onto the Senate on a unanimous vote was HB 5383 , which allows rural electric cooperatives to set their own rates and terms of service without approval from the Public Service Commission unless members of the cooperative sought PSC oversight. However, PSC would still regulate safety and service territory issues. The chamber also approved HB 5898 (99-2), which provides a business tax credit to research, development and manufacturing of photovoltaic energy. This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
Author: Staff Writer Source: Gongwer News Service
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