MIDLAND – Mid-Michigan Energy, an affiliate of LS Power Group, has dropped plans to build a 750-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Midland. A company official, in a Saginaw News article, cited economic and regulatory barriers to the project, as well as legislation enacted last year limiting customers who would draw power from the plant.
But environmentalists said the announcement was good for Michigan because it would boost clean energy jobs in the state.
“This is a great opportunity for new, clean, alternative energy companies to locate in Michigan and our region,” said Nancy Janoch, a member of Midland CARES, an activist group opposed to the plant. “We need Michigan made jobs and Michigan made energy and this victory helps to move us in that direction.”
But not everyone saw the announcement that way. Rep. Jim Stamas (R-Midland) said the news means a loss of 1,500 jobs in the region at a time when Michigan already has the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
And House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer (R-Bellaire) said, “It is unfortunate that Governor (Jennifer) Granholm and the Michigan Public Service Commission proceeded to implement her executive order even after the attorney general ruled it violated current statute and the Michigan Constitution. It is clear from the governor’s actions that clean-coal jobs are not welcome in Michigan. We only hope that the onerous regulatory environment created by the governor’s executive order and the recent actions of the Michigan Public Service Commission does not threaten other planned clean-coal plants slated for Rogers City and Bay City.”
Robert McCann, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Quality, denied state regulations were what held the project up.
“We worked with them since day one so that they understood the regulations, which are right in line with what other states have. It wasn’t anything on our end,” he said.
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