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Trades protest coal plant obstacles

Date Posted: October 9 2009

By Patrick Devlin
Secretary Treasurer
& Patrick “Shorty” Gleason
President
Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council

LANSING – The Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council this week staged a rally on the steps of the Capitol Building in Lansing.

We don’t hold rallies very often, but in this case, we felt we didn’t have a choice. Decisions are being made by state regulators and lawmakers that will have a profound impact on the job prospects of unionized construction workers across the State of Michigan. We needed to let them know that their decisions will have a real, lasting impact on our lives and livelihoods.

Michigan needs construction jobs. Thousands of them. There are local unions that are experiencing unprecedented unemployment – many have well over 50 percent of their membership sitting on the bench, and frankly, prospects for future work are grim.

As a result, this council and leaders in our affiliated unions have, during the past few years, been closely watching the regulatory progress and shifting political winds that affect the construction of coal-burning power plants in Michigan. This should be a good news story, but it’s turning into a nightmare.

Consumers Energy, which has been a responsible corporate citizen and a true partner with building trades unions and contractors, is proposing to spend $2 billion on a new clean-coal burning unit on the grounds of its Karn-Weadock plant near Bay City.

Yes, the actual construction is a couple years away, but there aren’t many other  companies knocking on Michigan’s door and with a proposal to spend that kind of money here. Except… for the Wolverine Power Cooperative.

Wolverine has a plan to spend $1.2 billion on another clean-coal plant near Rogers City, using union labor. Again, construction on this plant isn’t imminent – but we must look down the road and try to shore up our job prospects whenever possible, and this project would have a huge beneficial economic impact on Northeast Michigan.

Sound good? These are two companies that want to spend money in Michigan and provide thousands of construction jobs and scores of permanent jobs. Both companies plan on using abundant, low-cost coal to power their plants. The latest clean coal technology will be used, so that the plants will vastly limit their pollutants. In the case of  Consumers Energy’s proposed 830-megawatt unit, it will eventually replace older, more polluting production facilities.

Until Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s State of the State speech last February, there were no indications from the state that construction of those plants was anything but a go. Then, in her speech, Granholm announced that by the year 2020, the state would reduce its reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity by 45 percent. She said that could be achieved through increased use of renewable energy sources, gains in energy efficiency, and “other new technologies.”

 The governor’s edict got our attention, and eventually the attention of state Attorney General Mike Cox. On Feb. 20, Cox issued an opinion that Granholm “exceeded her legal authority” when she issued Executive Directive 2009-2, which attempted to create new legal requirements for the construction of coal-fired power plants in Michigan.

In that Feb. 3, 2009 executive order, Granholm’s directive required the state Department of Environmental Quality to deny air emissions permits under the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA) for coal-powered plants if it determined there are "feasible and prudent alternatives" to constructing coal-fired electric power plants. The directive also would have required DEQ to make a "determination" if there is a "reasonable electricity generation need" for a proposed coal-fired plant and consider alternative methods of meeting that need before approving a permit.

Cox said the new requirements imposed by the governor are “not found in the (NREPA) or other laws….”

But we were later assured by Lt. Gov. John Cherry that utilities applying for power plant construction permits from state agencies would only be required to submit a “carbon reduction strategy” to the state Department of Environmental Quality and apply for federal grant money, if it become available, to reduce carbon emissions.

Then, last month, the Michigan Public Service Commission weighed in. The MPSC basically said that Wolverine Power “failed to demonstrate” that putting the new power plant on the electrical grid was needed. And the proposed Consumers Energy unit was denied, the MPSC said, because it didn’t balance the new plant with “explicit retirement of existing capacity in its base load generation fleet.”

These rulings have delighted and energized the Green movement in Michigan, many of whom seem to think that windmills, solar power, biofuels, and hydroelectricity alone will be able to power our state into the future. Those technologies have a place, but their construction won’t come close to approaching the jobs provided by building – and later maintaining – baseload power generation plants.

Consumers Energy say that their fleet of baseload power generation plants needs to be upgraded – and that sounds good to us. At an average age of 50 years, their plants are among the oldest fleets in the nation. And Wolverine wants to introduce a new Michigan-made plant, which will keep power production local, jobs local, and taxes local. That sounds good to us, too.

Why that doesn’t sound good to the Granholm Administration is a mystery. She may be enamored with the environmental promises made by the Green movement, but we’re more enamored with the prospect of thousands of construction jobs.

The Granholm Administration has promised that air permits on both the Consumers Energy and Wolverine plants would be issued by Nov. 1. Undoubtedly, legal action will follow. The rally on Oct. 6 was intended to let Granholm know that we’re watching that deadline, as well as her every move when it comes to coal plant construction.

We also ask this question of her, state lawmakers as well as regulators who might be standing in the way of new clean-coal plant construction: what the hell are you thinking?

Michigan has $6.5 billion queued in coal plant work

The Consumers Energy unit in Bay City and Wolverine Power Cooperative facility near Rogers City plants aren’t the only coal-burning plants in Michigan considered for construction, but they are the farthest along in the state permit process. All told, the construction of more than $6.5 billion in coal-burning power plants are under consideration in Michigan – and all are at risk if the state continues its apparent move toward alternative “green” energy sources.

Proposed plants listed below are in various stages of the application and permit process:

In Midland, the L.S. Power group has proposed a 750-megawatt, $2 billion coal-fired plant. It is waiting on about 15 state or federal permits.

In Marquette, Northern Michigan University is proposing to construct a $55 million high-pressure boiler at their existing Ripley Heating plant that would be capable of burning a mix of fuels, including wood chips, coal and natural gas. The plant would be capable of producing the required university’s thermal and electrical needs.

The Lansing Board of Water and Light is looking to replace its aging Erickson Station powerhouse with a $1 billion, 350-megawatt plant that would burn coal and biomass fuels like waste wood and waste crops or grasses.

In Holland, the James De Young Generation Station Expansion is being proposed by the Board of Public Works. They seeking to expand the existing 11-megawatt plant with a 78-megawatt coal-fired boiler. Cost: about $250 million.