Green Scales

Coal Power and The Future of Energy in Michigan

I had the opportunity last week to sit down with Tremaine Phillips of the Michigan Environmental Council  to talk about power and energy in Michigan. He explained more extensively the present situation and future of energy that MEC sees for the state. But first, a question on the minds of many consumers: if it works, why fix it?

Well, it doesn't really work, or at least not efficiently. There are a number of problems with the way power is currently produced and sold here in Michigan and nationally. Though the pollution generated by coal-fired generators may be the most obvious, it's not the only problem. Here are three more to think about.

New Plants=Profits.

Many coal plant projects across the state, including the Lansing Board of Water and Light's recent proposal, are losing steam due to dropping electricity demand, lack of financing, incoming carbon dioxide regulations and public pressure (such as the Lansing Can Do Better Campaign). Phillips, however, believes that Michigan utilities will continue to push for the construction of large baseload coal generation in the future. Utility companies make money when they build new plants, as they can request increased consumer rates in order to recover the costs of new projects. It would seem that increasing rates, and thus profits, would be quite an incentive to company executives to build a new plant.

Power sales need decoupling.

That's not the only way that the profit structure is faulty. Now, says, Phillips when a company like DTE encounters less demand-- say, from the combination of the foreclosure crisis and a cooler-than-usual summer, and a declining stock market-- the utility companies then may ask for a rate increase from the Michigan Public Service Commission to recover lost revenue.  In other words, when less power is bought, the price of power goes up. "Decoupling" price, and more importantly, utility companies' profits, from amount of power used, would encourage them to be what Phillips called "Energy Service Companies." They would potentially then have more interest in energy efficiency and conservation.

Current Forecasts for MI Energy Future May Be Inaccurate

Whichever way you look at Michigan's population figures, it seems that the state is losing people-- both in pure numbers and in the percentage of United States citizens that live here. But when it comes to power demands, individual households are only part of energy demand. Large companies like General Motors make up a large portion of, for example, Lansing's power demand. (In 1992, GM represented about 25% of the BWL’s annual sales. Today, GM represents about 12%). As you may have noticed, GM is cutting back production these days.

The reports currently being used to predict energy usage in the next few years were published in 2007. The document being used most frequently by Michigan utility companies to predict future demand is called the 21st Century Energy Plan.

Phillips writes:

The Energy Plan’s assumption of 1.2% annual load growth in Michigan looks increasingly out of date (many utilities across the country are seeing a decrease in demand) and many energy experts see a need to update the 21 Century Energy Plan and other energy forecast reports. 

What does all this mean? Well, for a start, it wouldn't hurt to learn more about the way decisions are made by the state's biggest energy suppliers. It wouldn't hurt to consider the questions asked by, then answered by, BWL on their webpage, about the proposed new plant. Are there more questions that need asking? What about the jobs argument--that a new plant will bring construction jobs and support the economy?  I'd like to hear from readers on this one.

Coming in the next post on this topic: Just how big is demand for power here, and what might both demand and production look like in the future?  What's next?

Green Urban Decay?

Recently, I've been out talking to a lot of people about environmental justice. As someone with a career that depends on reading and writing, I always pay particular attention to the words used to describe the more-than-human environment.

During a driving tour of downtown Detroit recently, a friend pointed out some bits of urban prairie. I was under the impression that "urban prairie" was a bit of a metaphor-- you know, the tall grasses maybe replaced by tall fences, small prairie creatures by rats and pigeons, but I was wrong.

There are actually very small sections of prairie in and near downtown Detroit, including tall grasses and weeds, and such inhabitants as turkeys and foxes. Some of them are quite extensive.

This ecologist-blogger writes about her encounters with Detroit's urban prairie on birding expeditions, and mentions the extensive presence of pheasants in the area. And journalist Marti Bennedetti writes about the reclaiming of urban prairie for local community gardening.

I guess this is nice in some ways. Somehow, in the decay of human-occupied cityscapes, animals have moved back in, and humans are finding new ways to use the land.

Then again, the words people use to describe places and people tell you a lot about what they think is--and isn't--there. The same friends who showed me some of Detroit's urban prairie mentioned hearing an interview on the radio of an "urban explorer" in Detroit. 

The word "explorer" to me has some firsts associated with it-- the first person to see something, or the first to look at an object in a new way, perhaps. But as we have learned from history, some explorers were hardly mapping uncharted territory. Sometimes their "exploring" was bad news for those who were already inhabiting the area. Does that mixed meaning carry over in this situation?

Is there any value to urban blight, or should it be replaced as soon as possibe? What about urban prairie? Is there a place for it in revitalization efforts? I think the Michigan Central Train Station is beautiful, but it is clearly beyond hope of repair for any traditional building uses (other than, perhaps, filming movies about robots in disguise). So should it be torn down for more urban gardening space, or maybe yet another casino?  I don't know--but I'd love to know what you think.

Detroit's Environmental Justice Movement

I was at a meeting the other day where someone suggested that polling about environmental justice issues would be an interesting data project for Michigan. Few in the room really knew what "environmental justice" meant-- something I see over and over again. But I couldn't believe that no one worked with environmental justice issues here, in an industrial state also home to the largest freshwater body in the country  I went looking for groups who have already come together on the issue here in Michigan.

The Detroit area boasts a long-standing environmental justice group of its own, a group called Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice.Their mission statement follows:

Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ) is organized to empower individuals, communities, and community organizations in Southeast Michigan to educate, advocate and organize for cleaner,
healthier communities and environments.

DWEJ has worked not only to prevent illegal dumping and health-endangering air pollution, but they have also reached out to the community with a green jobs training initiative, as well as voter registration drives and community participation trainings.

The group also has an extensive resources page, where readers can learn about anything from incinerators to green building.

With such a large environmental justice organization focused on education and prevention efforts in Detroit, I am continually surprised at how foreign the term is to many people. Sometimes the words "environmental racism" are used interchangeably with environmental justice, but I am not sure the two are synonymous.  Here's how DWEJ defines EJ.

It also seems that Detroit has taken the lead in the state of Michigan on environmental justice initiatives. How much do their efforts already reach into the rest of the state, and how could their resources be extended and replicated to benefit those outside of Detroit?