Progress in Reducing Air Pollution
Michigan has a number of power producers across the state but our supplier in Roscommon and
Crawford counties is Consumers Energy, one of the leading suppliers in Michigan along with DTE. I recently looked at my bill from Consumers Energy to track my contribution to air pollution. I was astounded to learn that from my average use of 530 KWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity per month, I caused 8,756 pounds of CO2 to be released to our atmosphere on a yearly basis. 8,765 pounds! It seems like an extraordinarily large quantity of pollution since I rate myself as being a careful consumer, turning off unneeded lights and other electronic gadgets when not being used. (To calculate your emissions, see the EPA web page at
https://www.epa.gov/egrid/power-profiler#/RFCM
To find more information about my emissions record, I asked my computer ‘how clean is the electricity I use? The simple answer that came back is “not so much.”
It turns out that Michigan is not a sterling performer regards amount of CO2 generated while making power. The EPA has a calculator that allows the tabulation of pounds of CO2 per MKh (million watt-hours) depending upon your ZIP code. Nationally, the US averages 947 pounds of CO2 per MKh while Michigan produces a whopping 1312 pounds CO2 per MKh.
Why is there such a difference? Commercial electricity is produced by many different sources of energy, including wind, solar, nuclear, and fossil fuels. The type and amount of emissions produced in any particular area of the country depends on how electricity is generated in that region.
Our region continues to use a variety of fuels including coal, the fossil fuel that is most deleterious of all for generating greenhouse gas emissions, and our emission results show it. But we are improving each year by reducing coal use. Exactly five years ago we had 25 coal fired plants (some with multiple generators) making our electricity. In a 2016 report it was noted that coal once dominated Michigan power plants, but now it’s fading fast. Since 2010, Michigan utilities have retired at least 26 coal generators at 15 power plants, while 17 generators at six plants are set to retire by 2025.
Both Consumers Energy and DTE are working to reduce coal use. The changeover from coal requires major facilities revisions provoking large cost increases for most facilities. In June 2019, Michigan regulators approved Consumers Energy’s plan to phase out more of its coal-fired power plants and rely increasingly on renewable sources and energy efficiency. The plan they developed called for retiring two generators using coal at their plant near Bay City in 2023. The utility plans to close its final three coal units between 2031 and 2040. Consumers Energy agreed to study whether it can retire two of three units sooner, possibly as early as 2025. In today’s breaking news, Consumers Energy says it doesn't plan to retire their Campbell coal plant until 2040. Science and climate change experts tell us that in order to save our planet, we need to invest in 100% clean energy as quickly as possible. Twenty years from now is not quick.
DTE generated 61 percent of its electricity from coal as recently as 2016. But it recently announced plans to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050. The utility plant plans to retire of 11 of its 17 coal-fired generators within five years, following the blueprint of other large utilities across the country.
The Detroit-based utility announced plans last year to close the St. Clair coal plant, the site of a massive fire 18 months ago, between 2020 and 2023, and replace it with a $1 billion natural gas plant. “There’s nothing happening at the federal level at this point that would cause us to rethink our strategy,” according to Trevor Lauer, President and chief operating officer of DTE Electric.
If DTE’s plan is approved, Michigan consumers of their power will be on the hook to pay $1 billion dollars to substitute one fossil fuel for another. It will be an improvement to eliminate coal, but we will be saddled with another fossil fuel for many years since changes of this magnitude are unlikely to happen quickly once the new plant goes on-stream.
The Michigan Public Service Commission will ultimately decide to approve or reject the plans laid out by the electric utility producers. In the past, the Commission has used cost and long-term availability of supply as key metrics in their decision-making. My criticism of the Commission is that they don’t seem able to recognize the cost of fires, drought, or storms. or the human suffering that will continue to worsen with climate change. Put another way, why does cost matter to those who lose power from a natural catastrophe like a severe storm or lose their water wells from flooding along our extensive coasts?
The United States must do all that we can to meet the Paris Accords that we agreed with in 2015, if we are to keep our planet safe. Climate scientists agree that we must do more to meet the timetable that has been already laid out. Delaying the inevitable changeover to renewable energy sources seems like a bad idea to me.
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