I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Wolverine Power Cooperative is still waiting to see whether state regulators will allow it to build a 600 megawatt petroleum coke-fired power plant in Rogers City, but the company has gone ahead and purchased a 340 megawatt natural gas-fired plant in Wayne County.
The plant is located in Sumpter, was built in 2002 by FirstEnergy Generation, and consists of four 85 megawatt natural gas combustion turbines. The price of the plant was not disclosed.
Nancy Tanner, spokeswoman for Wolverine said that the purchase of the natural gas plant, “supplements our ongoing efforts to build long-term base load capacity near Rogers City.”
She said the plant would be used to cover spikes in energy demand and emphasized that the company remains committed to building the petroleum coke plant in Rogers City.
Demand for electricity is declining in Michigan, the Public Service Commission has stated the Michigan will need no new generating capacity until 2020, and peak demand among Wolverine customers is sharply down from last year.
Coal and petroleum coke are emissions intensive approaches to generating electricity, and new plants are becoming more expensive to build as stricter emissions controls are required.
Last month American Municipal Power Inc., an Ohio-based electricity wholesaler that supplies power to several Michigan towns, announced that rising costs for coal plant development had moved the company to switch gears and pursue new natural gas-based generation.
Michigan has several dormant natural gas-fired power plants and Joseph Romm, a senior fellow and energy expert at the Center for American Progress has suggested that they could play a role in weaning the state off coal.
In a interview with the Great Lakes News Bulletin Romm said:
“We have all of these underutilized natural gas power plants, and we’ve already spent most of the money to build them. For a very small extra cost, perhaps half a cent to a penny per kilowatt-hour, you could dramatically reduce U.S greenhouse gas emissions. That is one key role for natural gas in the next 10 to 15 years in replacing coal.”
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