Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer signed several climate bills into law, placing the state on the ambitious path to total carbon-free energy generation by 2040 — one of the top five most restrictive clean energy commitments in the nation. Whitmer has also set the goal of generating 50 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2030, giving the state just six years to increase the current 12 percent renewable generation more than four times over.
Since arriving in office, Gretchen Whitmer has angled to make herself the Midwest’s Gavin Newsom.
It’s hard to see these goals as anything but detached from reality, especially because the state ranked 11th in energy consumption in 2021, depending mostly on imports from outside the state. “We import 100% of the coal, 92% of the natural gas, and 97% of the oil and petroleum products we use,” said Martin Kushler, a senior fellow with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. (READ MORE from Mary Frances Myler: Meet the Polish Family Martyred by the Nazis)
Whitmer’s final goal might be unrealistic, but it perfectly sets up the Democrat-controlled state government to do what they do best: centralize power and mooch federal funding.
State Government Gains New Veto Power
Michigan Democrats ran into a small hiccup in their green transition plan. The renewable energy sources in the package — solar, water, and wind — require not only massive investment but also vast swaths of land. As of this year, 17,000 acres are used for wind and solar power. In order to meet the goal of 60 percent renewable energy, the footprint needs to explode to 209,000 acres — more than 12 times the current acreage.
In order to preempt any potential resistance to this vast expansion, Democrats gave the state’s Public Service Commission the power to overrule local government decisions regarding clean energy projects. It’s not hard to predict where this expansion will take place. There’s little room for massive projects like this in the dense urban districts responsible for electing the Democrats supporting the plan, but there’s plenty of space in the less populous Republican districts up north.
“Michigan’s rural communities will be upended as the governor’s hand-picked bureaucrats veto local decisions and put wind and solar farms in any community they please,” said Rep. Mike Harris.
Whitmer only looks north of the state capital when she’s heading to her vacation home, so it’s no surprise that she’s willing to allocate the burden of her green energy transition to regions she doesn’t think of. Out of sight, out of mind. (RELATED: Gretchen Whitmer’s Double Standards Are Exposed Yet Again With Her TikTok Usage)
Green Transition Sponsored by Bidenomics
When calculating the costs of such a massive transition, Democrats relied on one source in particular: federal funding. Drawing from the Inflation Reduction Act and other government grants, Whitmer has earned Michigan the (dis)honor of ranking second in the nation for the draw-down of federal funds for “climate and clean energy.” The costs of the climate package are immense, locking the state into an expensive plan despite the precarity of funding.
“Their whole analysis falls apart without the billions in federal subsidies,” Michigan Oil and Gas Association president and CEO Jason Geer told The American Spectator. “We are one election away from that money disappearing … Eventually, the subsidy will fall away and Michigan ratepayers will be left with the unaffordable bill.”
While a more moderate plan might have dispersed the costs of such a transition, Michigan Democrats have no problem hurtling towards financial instability.
“It’s hard to imagine any amount of savings that can be achieved if you are aggressively building out solar and wind along with a completely new transmission system in a 17-year period,” said Geer. “Upgrading our grid will take years and will be extremely costly.”
And the rapid time frame for Whitmer’s plan only makes the endeavor more challenging. “We will also have to contend with the fact that many other states will be doing the same thing, making materials more expensive and making access to niche applications and installers very challenging,” Geer noted.
Unreliable Green Energy Won’t Serve Michigan Well
In addition to massive costs, the climate package threatens Michigan’s energy reliability. Geer explained:
[The package] assumes that renewables plus battery storage can provide us with the same protection that a baseload fossil fuel backup power plant can. I’m not aware of a single example of this to date — even in California they continue to depend on fossil fuel power plants for reliability.
Solar energy is considered 50 percent reliable, far outperforming wind, at 15 percent reliability. Michigan isn’t exactly a likely candidate for efficient solar power anyway, as clouds block the sun for more than half of each year. The cold winter months see even less sun, logging only 2–6 days of sun each month from November through April.
“These heavy-handed laws will force people to hand more money to big utility companies while getting less reliable electricity and suffering more blackouts as a result,” explained Rep. Mike Harris. It’s not at all clear that Whitmer has considered these risks, and Michigan families aren’t the only ones who could suffer from lack of reliability. (READ MORE: The California Exodus Is Gathering Steam)
The clean energy package has “little impact” on Michigan’s oil and gas industry, Geer told The American Spectator, but its effects will be felt throughout the state nonetheless.
“Manufacturing needs certainty for costs and electric reliability so they can be competitive and keep costs in line,” said Geer. He suggested that the new changes could prompt manufacturers to leave Michigan for states with more reliable energy.
None of this is surprising. Since arriving in office, Gretchen Whitmer has angled to make herself the Midwest’s Gavin Newsom, driving her state into the ground with leftist policies even as she angles for greater presence on the national stage. Her green energy plan won’t work, and it will place heavy burdens on her citizens — but Democrats love the climate crisis, and now they have another reason to love Whitmer.
Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Northern Michigan now living in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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