GreenTown: Future of Energy and Economy Session

(This article is part of a series of postings based on our attendance of the Greentown Conference in Grand Rapids.)

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell was the moderator for this session that featured two panelists from the government sector and two from the private sector.

Fred Keller, Chairman and CEO of Cascade Engineering was the first panelist to speak. Keller spent a few minutes talking about the evolution of his company from a focus of auto manufacturing to some renewal energy development. Keller didn’t address anything concrete other than his company’s shift from spending thousands of dollars on waste removal and is fast approaching zero waste.

Greg White with the Michigan Public Service Commission spoke next and addressed the struggles with trying to develop renewal energy systems at the state level. White acknowledged that the state has struggled until recently when they have developed a new platform for renewal energy. Their goal is to have 10% of the state’s energy generation be renewable by 2015.

The next panelist was Jon Allan, the Executive Director of Environmental Policy & Intergovernmental Affairs with Consumers Energy. He began his comments by addressing the importance of a regulatory industry that he believes will be beneficial for the private energy sector.

Allan then cited some data on what Consumers Energy has done in recent years to implement energy efficiency for residential consumers. He said that Exelon just bought John Deer and will now be a major energy player in Michigan. What he didn’t say was that Exelon is a major coal powered energy company and a leading nuclear power entity that has been contributing over a million dollars to political campaigns since 2002. Allan also did not mention their role in pushing for an increase in coal-burning power plants throughout the state nor the public campaign to confront Consumers Energy on their role in perpetuating ecologically disastrous energy sources.

Consumers Energy is developing wind farms in a few counties in the state and they believe that they are moving in the right direction in regards to renewable energy. He emphasized the entrepreneurial opportunities with energy, particularly lighting. However, Allan spoke primarily in terms of what they do and how it relates to “customers” instead of citizens.

The last panelist was John Hieftje, who is the Mayor of the City of Ann Arbor. Hieftje talked a bit about their mass transit improvements and the incentives they offer to promote more bicycle commuting for residents. Ann Arbor is also working on improving their recycling processes and has increased their use of solar energy systems in the city.

The mayor of Ann Arbor did acknowledge that just across the border in Canada they are doing so much more with renewable energy production with wind and solar. Hieftje asks the question about why Michigan is not doing more of that and do we have the capacity to make these kinds of things happen. He also said that he has put out an invitation to any energy company that they would sign a long-term contract for renewal energy for the City of Ann Arbor, but not one company has stepped forward to offer such a service. This certainly says something about what the energy profiteers are not doing.

The first question asked of the panel addressed accessing data on energy use and if that information was more public would that be useful in terms of determining what actions to take. The Consumers Energy representative argues that the data is private and that the “responsibility” of energy use is on those individual entities – residents, business and municipalities. This response avoided the importance of what it would mean to have more public transparency of energy use in order to develop better strategies and hold each other accountable.

A second question addressed street lighting and energy efficiency, which was responded to by the Michigan Public Service Commissioner. However, the answer was somewhat muddled and did not address the concern about efficiency that the questioner posed.

The last question was addressed to Consumers Energy and addressed the need to improve and expedite the possibility of getting more customers to participate in their energy efficiency program. The Consumer’s rep said that they wanted to move in that direction, but also placed some of the burden on the current regulatory laws in Michigan.

Overall the panel spoke mostly in generalities and did not address many specific solutions or strategies around energy and the economy. It was clear that no one on the panel addressed the possibilities of energy being held in the public sector or as part of “the commons,” where everyone would have a say in how energy is produced and used. An energy commons would also take out the profit motive and operate as a public service in the same way that libraries or municipal recycling systems do.