2011.05.19 Press Release
Citizens To Tell State Regulators To Reject Coal Plant Residents from Rogers City to Lansing Could Be Hit with Big Electric Bills
CLEAN ENERGY NOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 19, 2011
Contact: Leigh Fifelski, 517-999-3646
Citizens To Tell State Regulators To Reject Coal Plant
Residents from Rogers City to Lansing Could Be Hit with Big Electric Bills
ROGERS CITY – Citizens gathered to oppose a proposed Clean Air Act permit for a new coal plant here as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is scheduled to conduct a public hearing today to consider the permit request from the Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative. If the permit is approved it would signal a strong new push by the Snyder administration in favor of building polluting coal plants and away from the state’s clean energy policies of recent years.
“Michigan is just beginning to move out of the dark ages and into a new, clean energy future and citizens are taking a stand today: We must not open the door to more dirty coal plants that can derail our efforts and hurt struggling families in their wallets,” said Anne Woiwode, director of the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club. “More coal plants will only send us backwards on clean energy and energy efficiency, which are the real engines of job growth across the nation and globally – not more coal. The citizens of Rogers City and across Michigan are united in calling on large utilities to stop building coal plants and start investing more clean energy and energy efficiency.”
Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative wants to build a new dirty coal plant that will financially burden Wolverine’s more than 200,000 electricity users who reside in widespread areas from Rogers City to Holland to Lansing. Rogers City residents living below poverty levels will be particularly hard hit as electric bills could increase by as much as $76 per month if the Rogers City coal plant is built. Data shows an that 26 percent of Wolverine’s electric users in Rogers City live in poverty.
“The proposed coal plant in Rogers City will stick more than 200,000 people with the tab for a plant that isn’t even needed and that’s going to hurt, especially struggling families who are already paying through the nose for food and gas,” said local resident Wayne Vermilya. “This coal plant will lead to skyrocketing electricity rates for people who can barely afford to make ends meet. Wolverine should put that money into more energy efficiency and clean energy that can return savings to ratepayers and help create Michigan jobs.”
“We know that energy efficiency programs can save electricity for one-fourth the cost of electricity from building a new power plant,” said Marty Kushler, Senior Fellow at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. “As the analysis by the Michigan Public Service Commission staff clearly demonstrated, there is simply no reason to burden that region with the huge costs of a new coal-fired power plant.”
Across the state, the push to end coal continues. In May of 2010, Consumers Energy indefinitely put its plans to build a 930 MW coal plant in Bay County on hold and in July the Lansing Board of Water and Light rescinded its plans to build a coal plant. These decisions came about 28 months following Dynergy’s announcement that they would pull their plans to build a coal plant in Midland. Only one week ago, the MDEQ was sued by the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council for ignoring state regulations when it approved an air pollution permit for a proposed coal plant in Holland.
“The Draft Permit issued by MDEQ for the Wolverine coal plant is contrary to the Clean Air Act, state law, and state regulations,” said Nick Schroeck, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “Citizens groups have identified numerous shortcomings in the permit application and Wolverine has failed to demonstrate that its coal plant would comply with all regulatory standards. MDEQ explicitly has the authority to evaluate need and alternatives to the proposed coal plant in the context of protecting air quality in and around Rogers City and to deny the permit based upon those grounds.”
In addition to a possible increase in co-op members’ electric bills across the state, a new coal plant will also worsen air pollution, increase dangerous emissions such as mercury and carbon dioxide, and harm public health. The Rogers City coal project could also open the door to a landfill quarry for coal ash, an additional danger to public health.
###