LANSING – Though bills started moving from committees in both chambers this week to begin implementing new energy policies in the state, none of those bills will actually move from the Senate until March, Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton) told Gongwer News Service.

His Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee was discharged Thursday of bills (see related story) that would essentially enact the 21st Century Energy Plan developed by former Public Service Commission Chair Peter Lark, but Mr. Patterson said he was still researching the elements needed in a long-term plan.

“The House tried to get ahead of the Senate yesterday for all the wrong reasons,” he said of the bills reported from the House Energy and Technology Committee. He said he had not yet been convinced of the need for the requirements in the bills.

“I am very interested in trying to bring about jobs and economic development in Michigan,” Patterson said. “What I see is the House moving a 6-8 percent increase in energy costs.”

While there have been a number of studies indicating that imposing a renewable portfolio standard on utilities would bring jobs to the state, Patterson said he has not seen studies to support some of the numbers of jobs discussed and has seen reviews of those studies showing they reached the conclusions requested by those paying for the studies.

Patterson understood that part of the reason for moving the bills in the House was to give Governor Jennifer Granholm a success to discuss in the State of the State Address next week. “I hope the governor doesn’t make those kinds of specific references,” he said of jobs created by setting a renewable standard.

He said he is still waiting for irrefutable testimony that the mandatory standard is needed to spur development in the industry. He said he has been working with Lt. Governor John Cherry and Granholm’s energy czar Skip Proose to gather that testimony.

“They are going to provide their best case witness,” he said.

Patterson said he was not adverse to setting renewable and alternative energy goals and creating incentives to reach them. “If we can establish a goal, we can create a system whereby entrepreneurs and capitalists are willing to invest,” he said.

Rep. Frank Accavitti (D-Eastpointe), chair of the House committee, had said after the panel reported the bills that he wasn’t trying to put any pressure on Mr. Patterson to act, but felt that conversations on some parts of the House package (including customer choice changes known as PA 141) had stalled and needed a vote to spur people back to the table.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>