Pollution-free Wind Power in Michigan

Looks like some of the communities in Michigan get it even if the state doesn’t. Oceana County’s Elbridge Township is exploring a 60MW wind project that would include 30 turbines spanning 5000 acres. Beyond the obvious health benefits of wind versus coal, cleaner air and reduced likelyhood of developing asthma, wind projects share generated revenue with land owners providing, in effect, a private market subsidy or additional income stream for Michigan’s farmers.

Elbridge Township has the right idea. Now only if we could get the Michigan legislature to open the Michigan market to competition rather than maintaining the anti-competitive, cost-increasing, walled garden for Michigan’s utilities whose campaign is dubbed "Michigan Jobs & Energy". A more appropriate name would be, "Sure you’ll get a few jobs, but no where near as much as you would otherwise have, but please accept our thanks for agreeing to pay more for your electricity than you would have," or something like that. For the record, notice that pretty much all of our representatives and Governor Granholm were on the take from DTE from 2006 (2006-07 contributions) to 2008 (2008 contributions), the time in which DTE and Consumer’s Energy lobbied the legislature not to open Michigan to competition. Send a thank you email to your State Rep, State Senator and Governor for once again screwing the people of Michigan. After all, it’s not like Michigan could use a break in electricity rates. …or anything else for that matter.

Who we really owe thanks to are the people of Elbridge Township for showing some thought leadership and acting with logic, common sense and in their own self-interest, which in the case of wind energy, is also in the interest of the common good.