Legislature OKs ultimate payments giving state regulators authority over renewable power permits

“I’m grateful for the commonsense amendments that guarantee native communities can work with utilities on growing clear power websites,” she mentioned in an announcement Wednesday night. “Individuals wish to know that they’ll begin a household, profession, or enterprise in a state that may present them with sturdy financial alternatives and combat for his or her kids’s future. At the moment we’re defending all the things we all know and love about pure Michigan.”

The 2-bill package deal handed the Home final week, following a flurry of amendments to the lead invoice, Home Invoice 5120.

Whereas the package deal was initially made up of 4 payments, Home Majority Flooring Chief Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck) mentioned the 2 payments that handed the Home achieved the objective of the package deal. 

At Tuesday’s Senate Committee on Power and Setting assembly, state Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton), one of many sponsors, broke down the amended laws.

The package deal would place allowing for giant scale renewable power tasks — together with photo voltaic power developments with a capability of fifty megawatts or extra; wind services with 100 megawatts or extra; and power storage services with a capability of fifty megawatts or extra and a discharge capability of 200 megawatts or better —beneath the management of the Michigan Public Service Fee (MPSC), which regulates power corporations within the state. 

Nonetheless, Puri mentioned current amendments to the invoice would require power corporations to work with municipalities whose allowing course of mirrors that of the state, giving the 2 events 120 days to succeed in an settlement. They’ll additionally apply for an extension for an additional 120 days. 

Underneath these adjustments, electrical suppliers can submit a allowing software to the MPSC if the impacted neighborhood fails to approve or deny an software in a well timed method, if the native zoning course of is stricter than the requirements outlined within the invoice, or if a undertaking meets the requirements outlined within the invoice, however the software is denied. 

“Earlier than it was an choice for the applicant to decide on to work with the native municipality or forgo the MPSC course of first,” Puri mentioned. “However now they’re pressured to work with the native municipality, giving them the appropriate to have that dialog first. If — once more — if, they’ve a neighborhood course of developed.”

Moreover, builders must pay communities $2,000 per megawatt of the undertaking’s capability to fund police, fireplace, public security, different infrastructure or for different tasks agreed to by the native unit and the developer.

Michigan Public Service Fee Chair Dan Scripps mentioned the state’s present method to siting renewable power developments was damaged, and would hinder the state’s means to fulfill clear power targets handed by the Home and Senate. 

“It’s troublesome to see how we meet these commitments or our broader renewable power targets with out significant siting reform,” Scripps mentioned.

These adjustments would additionally deliver siting for large-scale renewable power developments beneath the identical course of as nearly all of the state’s power infrastructure, Scripps mentioned, later noting the fee holds authority over the siting of high-voltage transmission traces, pure fuel, petroleum and carbon dioxide pipelines. 

The payments confronted staunch opposition from Republicans, who mentioned the payments would take away energy from native governments and would end result within the lack of farmland in rural communities throughout the state.  

At Tuesday’s committee assembly, Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) requested Scripps whether or not the fee would deny allowing requests that had been denied by communities. 

Scripps mentioned he didn’t count on the fee would attain a special end result from the neighborhood until that municipality was making use of totally different requirements than are in state regulation. 

“I don’t count on that we might usually arrive at a special end result, until the local people is making use of requirements, apart from these which are set out in state regulation, that’re going additional, or they’re saying, ‘We don’t care what the regulation says. We simply don’t need it right here,’” Scripps mentioned.

“In that case, I believe we might, in these instances, like we do in different power infrastructure instances, stability the type of native considerations towards the state’s curiosity in that infrastructure,” Scripps mentioned.

Following the invoice’s passage, Damoose issued an announcement saying the payments would permit the state to bulldoze native determination making. 

“Native governments have a chance to supply enter, however the end result is predetermined. The one authority that locals preserve on this energy seize is the flexibility to say sure,” Damoose mentioned.

In committee, supporters famous the package deal accommodates express language to forestall eminent area takings and defending farmland from being diminished by renewable power developments. 

“Nobody will ever be pressured to surrender any land,” Puri mentioned.

“That is very a lot a property rights difficulty. If a farm proprietor or landowner willingly needs to lease his or her land for photo voltaic or wind, this course of finds them away to have the ability to just do that. Far too usually a neighborhood authority denies permits as a result of somebody on the township board doesn’t like the best way that these look,” Puri mentioned.

In line with a report from the Sabin Middle for Local weather Change Regulation at Columbia Regulation Faculty, 26 localities have insurance policies blocking or limiting renewable power developments. 

Michigan Home approves adjustments to scrub power siting, renewable requirements and extra

Following the passage of Home Payments 5120 and 5121, Evergreen Motion, a clear power and local weather advocacy group launched an announcement in help of the payments.

“These payments strike a stability between financial growth, environmental safety, and the wants of native communities—positioning Michigan as a clear power chief,” mentioned Courtney Bourgoin, Evergreen Motion’s Midwest senior coverage and advocacy supervisor. 

The payments additionally obtained help from quite a lot of clear power and environmental advocacy teams, together with the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, the Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan Clinicians for Local weather Motion and the Pure Assets Protection Council.