The Detroit News: State's net-zero mandates aren't about saving the planet

Logging state forests to build industrial solar facilities: A classic case of environmental policy gone awry

Grok 2 AI envisions a solar developer working to replace state forests with hundreds of acres of solar panels

My most recent article was published in the Detroit News this morning. I’ve included the opening portion of the piece here. The remainder is available for subscribers on the Detroit News website.

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Michiganians are witnessing a classic case of environmental policy gone awry. The state Department of Natural Resources has just approved a solar developer’s plan to clear-cut 420 acres of forest near Gaylord to make room for a planned solar development.

Whether this project will continue remains up in the air, but Michigan residents should stop misleading ourselves about the economic and environmental value of wind and solar developments.

The first truth we can admit to ourselves is that this story has nothing to do with going green. The only green here is in the greenbacks for solar developers and monopoly utilities. The second truth is that taxpayers and utility customers will be stuck with the bill. The third truth is that a planned solar facility will make Michigan’s already unreliable electric service even less reliable.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's "MI Healthy Climate Plan" mandates carbon neutrality by 2050. The wind and solar push, accelerated in December 2023 by Public Acts 233 and 235, demands a headlong rush into so-called renewable sources— 60% by 2035 and 100% “clean sources” by 2040. Phrases like “carbon neutral,” “renewable” and “clean” all sound noble in headlines. But in practice, they mean shutting down reliable energy sources, decreasing reliability, raising electricity rates and now razing the states’ forests.

Ironically, Harvard University researchers highlight the contradiction of rushing to power society with massive, land-grabbing solar installations. "The current trajectory of deployment of large ground-mount solar,” the authors of the 2023 study “Growing Solar, Protecting Nature” explain, “is coming at too high a cost to nature.”

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Unfortunately, I can’t reprint the entire piece here as it is behind a paywall. However, Detroit News subscribers can follow the link to access the remainder of the article.

I have also published another video that I recorded on this issue here, and I will be posting a few more interviews that I recorded with Michael Patrick Shiels on Michigan’s Big Show and Tom Jordan on Tom Jordan Live on Wayne Radio.