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A California Billionaire Sets Michigan’s Energy Policy
Wall Street Journal ^ | June 22, 2018 | Jason Hayes

Posted on 06/23/2018 5:57:31 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Michigan’s two largest electricity companies struck a “breakthrough agreement” last month with billionaire California environmentalist Tom Steyer to boost the Wolverine State’s clean-energy requirements. Earlier this year, Mr. Steyer had funded a ballot initiative slated for August to force Michigan’s electricity providers to source 30% of their overall sales from renewable options such as wind and solar by 2030. But under the new agreement, the utilities will aim to produce a minimum 25% of their energy from renewable sources and a further 25% from energy-efficiency measures by that same year. This 50% green-energy goal will effectively govern the state’s energy policy for at least the next decade.

News of the deal between Mr. Steyer and the utilities— DTE Energy and Consumers Energy—has left many in Michigan wondering what happened to the established process for setting energy policy. The deal hasn’t been approved by state officials or voters. How is it possible that two utilities and a single special-interest group can independently agree to raise the state’s renewable energy mandate and get away with it?

If DTE and Consumers Energy were private businesses operating in a free market, the specifics of their contracts with outside organizations would concern only their investors and boards. But the companies are state-regulated monopolies, shielded from competition by Michigan’s laws. And the going has been good for them recently: The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved 15 separate rate increases for the two companies since 2003.

The role of national environmental groups in driving the agreement has deprived voters of influence even as proponents of green energy gripe about the interference of advocacy groups opposed to their measures. The Sierra Club complained in 2014 that corporate money is “polluting our democracy and our environment,”

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: billionaires; consumersenergy; dteenergy; energy; michigan; steyer; tomsteyer
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To: catnipman

That’s not my job, but if you live in Colorado, you should keep up with Xcel


21 posted on 06/24/2018 4:54:38 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: WhoisAlanGreenspan?

Put your money where your mouth is and invest in a coal fired power plant.


22 posted on 06/24/2018 5:05:52 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin

“That’s not my job”

indeed. your job is to make unsubstantiated claims you’re incapable of backing up with data ...


23 posted on 06/24/2018 9:58:16 AM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: reaganaut1

Wolverine State? That’s the mascot for the University of Michigan.


24 posted on 06/24/2018 4:15:46 PM PDT by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: catnipman
Reality is not determined by what gets posted here at free republic. Fr is really just a fringe chat room that exists because a group is willing to shell out $350 grand.

The article above is merely about changing the state's renewable standards, and many state have increased that as the technology has advanced and the prices have gone down.

Texas set their first renewable standard in 1999 and made their first revision in 2004 and have made several revisions since then

That's the actual theme set in Paris in 2015. All the nations or parties to the global climate treaty acknowledging that the price of renewables had fallen to the point that they could make commitments to the future.

25 posted on 06/26/2018 8:37:59 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin

“Fr is really just a fringe chat room”

and yet here you are chatting away ...


26 posted on 06/26/2018 10:09:06 AM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: catnipman
scroll back to the top of and that fist line says: "boost clean energy requirements"

And the third line says: "minimum 25%"

Its even worse in Colorado: 30% renewable by 2020.

27 posted on 06/26/2018 11:01:05 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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