LANSING – The effort is not over yet for creating a new energy policy for Michigan as some 10 plants are expected to shut down over the next two weeks, Sen. Mike Nofs said Monday.

“It’s not dead,” Nofs (R-Battle Creek), chair of the Senate Energy and Technology Committee, told Gongwer News Service.

After considerable work and attention in 2015, the energy discussion has shriveled to the point where many question whether the Legislature will take any action at all. A House package is stuck on the floor, caught up in the debate over customer choice and renewable energy.

Nofs’ committee has yet to report a bill.

Even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan on emissions allocations is being battled out in court (See Gongwer Michigan Report, February 10, 2016), that will not affect the movement or importance of Michigan developing its own energy policy for its market, Nofs said.

“We never really worried on the CPP plan,” he said.

Nofs said he and Sen. John Proos (R-St. Joseph), the lead sponsors of SB 437 and SB 438, respectively, have continued work with all affected parties on constantly changing drafts of the legislation. Nofs said ideally they will meet with parties this week and try to get changes done in time for a committee next week on revamped bills.

The biggest talk for now, he said, is on capacity issues and local planning requirements. One key piece of Nofs’ proposal is an integrated resource planning process such that when something is cost-competitive, the Public Service Commission will have to consider that option in permitting the building of certain electric generation facilities.

That is also one of the most distinct differences between the Senate energy proposal, as it was last discussed, and the House proposal (See Gongwer Michigan Report, November 5, 2015).

But Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), chair of the House Energy Policy Committee and lead sponsor of his chamber’s legislation, has said there is room for “technical and clerical” changes in his legislation (HB 4298, HB 4297 and HB 4575), and Nofs said while the Senate is commanding its own legislation, it is keeping Nesbitt abreast of changes.

One piece that is still being worked on in the Senate, Nofs said, is renewable energy and energy efficiency. He said it is his belief that the energy efficiency portion of that equation is done, but Democrats are not quite on board with renewable proposals.

Senate Republicans have been open to having a goal for renewable energy but not a mandate like that of the state’s 2008 energy law, which commanded the state’s utilities to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity through renewable resources by 2015. Those companies have more than met that goal (See Gongwer Michigan Report, February 12, 2016).

“People will be grandfathered in who made the choice to purchase and maintain (solar) equipment,” Nofs noted.

New solar customers will get the “avoidance cost” determined by the PSC when it comes to the cost of their electric generation and what they can sell it for to the open market if they produce more than they use, he said.

Nofs also maintained, as he has since the inception of the Senate legislation, that electric choice – or allowing a certain amount of the market to receive its electricity through alternative electric suppliers – will be kept in the Senate. But equally as important to his colleagues, Nofs said is “to treat everyone the same,” so an alternative electric supplier would be subject to the same kind of capacity and reserve margins for their market as utilities are currently required to follow.

Alternative suppliers have said the type of changes under discussion would be tantamount to ending electric choice as a functional program.

The new goal for Nofs’ energy policy is to try to having something sent to Governor Rick Snyder by the time the Legislature breaks for the summer, he said. But even that could face an uphill battle in a House election year.

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