LANSING – Michigan Legislators involved in the ongoing discussions to draft a new energy and utility regulation policy for the state are very close to an agreement, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said on Thursday.

There is essentially only one disagreement still be resolved, Matt Marsden said in response to criticism from Governor Jennifer Granholm and others that the Senate has been the holdup in reaching agreement.

Meanwhile Granholm said the state is positioned to become a world leader in battery technology to help propel the latest generation of motor vehicles. Speaking to auto industry executives and analysts in Traverse City, Granholm said it is critical both in terms of the nation’s defense and economy that Michigan and the United States become leading producers of batteries.

Legislative session was cancelled on Wednesday because an agreement had not been reached on the energy bills that would restructure Michigan’s utility regulation and set requirements on how much electric energy must be produced by renewable sources. Democrats charged that Senate Republicans were the holdup, a charge Granholm repeated in a radio interview.

In the interview, Granholm said enactment of the energy package, HB 5524 and SB 213 , could be the biggest job development proposal in the state in years and but that on the “Senate side there seems to be no sense of urgency” to enact the package.

Marsden called the comments “the same stuff they love to do.” In fact, he said, Senate officials, including Bishop, have been meeting repeatedly on the legislation and are very close to a resolution.

There remains a relatively small hang-up in reaching final agreement, he said. He deferred identifying the holdup to the legislators doing the negotiating, but they could not be reached for comment.

Marsden also said Democrats were complaining because they wanted to get the provisions completed before they went to the national convention in Denver.

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