Manufacturing Powerhouse Michigan Considers Bill to ‘Go Green’

CV NEWS FEED // The state of Michigan, home to a large portion of America’s coal-dependent manufacturing industry, is considering a bill that calls for a 100% “carbon-free energy portfolio” by the year 2035.

Several Michigan Democrats have proposed the “Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act” (HB 4759) as a way to “address climate change.”

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Betsy Coffia, D-MI, stated:

For me it’s about acknowledging the place we are in. There is science to back human-caused climate change. We have to stop ignoring that and be ambitious toward taking care of our planet but also looking out for our most vulnerable.

Coffia’s state House colleague Rep. Pat Outman, R-MI, called the governing party’s plan the “most radical, ridiculous energy policy in the nation.”

Jack Spencer, an energy policy senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argued in a piece for The Daily Signal that if HB 4759 were enacted, it “would devastate the Michigan economy and provide no environmental benefits.”

An IndustrySelect report from last week rated Michigan as the fifth-best state for manufacturing jobs, boasting a total of 711,807 – a number comprising 15% of its total employment. This is primarily due to the automotive industry.

Spencer explained that Michigan’s industrial prowess is predominately the result of its reliance on non-renewable sources of energy that Democrats openly seek to undermine. 

“Michigan gets about 63% of its energy from conventional sources like coal and natural gas (33.4% and 29.4%, respectively). 26% comes from nuclear, while wind and solar provide only around 8%,” Spencer wrote:

This means that two-thirds of Michigan’s most affordable electricity will need to be replaced by more expensive and less reliable renewables.

In other words, higher prices and lower reliability for Michigan residential consumers and businesses.

Spencer compared Michigan to Germany and California. Both have crippled their economies as a result of “going green” – sharply driving up costs and being forced to import much of their energy. In Germany, “industry pessimism about the economy is as severe now as it was during the 2008 financial crisis and the initial COVID-19 lockdowns,” Spencer warned: 

Seventy-eight percent of businesses surveyed identified rising energy and raw material prices as two of the biggest risks they face, contributing to expectations that their businesses will deteriorate.

Another survey found that nearly 25% of Germany’s small- and medium-sized businesses are considering or actually relocating parts of their operations to other countries.

Spencer noted that the Michigan bill would not even accomplish its stated goal of combating climate change. “If Michigan were to eliminate all of its conventional fuel-based emissions, it would result in the infinitesimal temperature reduction of 0.0042 degrees Celsius by 2100.”

CatholicVote Director of Communications Josh Mercer is a Michigan resident. “There is no way that Michigan can go 100% carbon-free in 12 years – not without massive brownouts and nasty spikes in energy costs,” he said. “Everything will become so much more expensive to produce and transport. This will have a crippling effect on the elderly and the poor. This legislation must be stopped.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-MI, is an advocate of stringent environmental policies. She made achieving “economy-wide carbon neutrality” an important part of her reelection campaign. Last year, Democrats flipped both houses of the Michigan legislature, delivering the state its first Democratic trifecta since 1984.