In this post and radio interview, I had the opportunity to continue the discussion over whether Michigan’s myopic focus on CO2 emissions is a solid basis for sound energy and environmental policy. (For those who are short of time, it isn’t.)
On Thursday morning (January 9), Michael Patrick Shiels, the host of Michigan’s Big Show, and I looked at a few reasons why energy policy needs to consider more than just carbon dioxide.
If the audio box above doesn’t work properly, or you want to listen via another source, you can also access the interview on Apple Podcasts or on Spreaker.
At the opening of our discussion, MPS explained that House Rep. Ken Borton from Gaylord, MI, had been on the show earlier. MPS described him as “beside himself.” (click the link to hear Rep. Borton’s discussion with MPS.) Rep. Borton’s concerns about the potential impacts of the planned logging and solar development pushed him to join a bipartisan group of 52 Michigan legislators who wrote a letter demanding that Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources provide legislators with
…answers as to where flattening over 400 acres of forest to clear the way for foreign-built solar panels fits within your department’s mission. We also demand a thorough report on all DNR involvement with efforts to replace valuable natural resources with unproven green energy technologies.
I have been working on getting more information about this fiasco out to the public. I will post more to this Substack page in the upcoming week. But here’s a brief list of the topics MPS and I discussed.
I explained that Michigan’s DNR plans to lease 420 acres of forested state land to solar developers who plan to clear it to make room for an industrial solar development.
State agencies are taking these actions to meet the net-zero goals laid out in Governor Whitmer’s “MI Healthy Climate Plan.”
MPS wondered if they are going to “Pave paradise, put up a parking lot” (with nods to Joni Mitchell.)
MPS correctly pointed out that this development is roughly the size of three golf courses
I have also described the plan in terms of WalMart parking lots (again, in keeping with the Joni Mitchell theme). The average size of a WalMart parking lot is about 4 acres. Compare that to the planned solar development to get 420 / 4 = 105. This one solar facility would be the same as 105 WalMart parking lots
.
I discussed a Harvard study that tries to promote the climate change scare, as well as the use of more solar. Researchers that produced the report, but still had to admit large-scale solar facilities that remove trees to clear land for solar arrays cause a net increase in atmospheric CO2 because you lose the CO2 sequestration from the trees as they photosynthesize.
We discussed how it is ironic that we’re so focused on CO2 that we’re now effectively ignoring serious environmental policy—destroying the environment to save the environment
MPS asked if the DNR also leases state lands for other purposes. I noted that they do, but the difference here is a wellhead or pump jack takes up 0.5 acres to 1 acre. Furthermore, oil and gas work. Solar, especially in an area like Gaylord (which is one of the cloudiest locations in the state and regularly receives heavy snow throughout the winter months), is at best unreliable.
The comparison to other uses is also weak because oil and gas are dispatchable (you can turn them on and off when you need/don’t need them). However, solar is expensive and unreliable. You can’t be sure it will produce energy on any given day, or that it will produce sufficient energy. It may be able to trickle out limited amounts of electricity throughout the cloudy, snowy days of Michigan’s winter, but that is an insufficient reason to knock down hundreds (or thousands) of acres of state forests.
MPS noted the visual blight that renewable energy imposes on an area—they’re ugly. I agreed that a solar installation has a “face that only a mother could love” kind of look.
MPS wondered if the project was still going to go forward. I explained that, while the German company RWE has pulled back from this 420-acre project, the DNR had posted a “Notice of intent to lease land” in a local paper on Jan 7. A copy of the lease notice was posted to X on the Iron Pig Smokehouse account.
The case against building solar in much of Michigan is growing daily. But, even if citizens manage to get this one development stopped, don’t be fooled. As I described in another X post a few days ago
Michigan has committed to getting 60% of its electricity supply from wind and solar by 2035. That's 10 years to 4X current levels.
The MPSC says it will take 209,000 acres. If they don't get 400 acres in Hayes Township, they're coming to your township or county to get more.
This is only the first of MANY more notices of intent to lease land from the state government. If they don’t carpet over hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and farm land across the state, they won’t be able to achieve Governor Whitmer’s net zero mandates.
Get ready folks, they’re just getting started.
Share this post