Wolverine power plant permit denied

A 600 megawatt petroleum coke and coal fired power plant planned by the Wolverine Power Cooperative in Rogers City has been denied an air permit by the state Dept. of Natural Resources and Environment, Governor Granholm announced today.

Granholm said that the state’s decision was based on a Michigan Public Service Commission analysis that found that Wolverine had failed to demonstrate that the plant is needed. The MPSC also found that the cost of building the plant would raise residential electricity rates by almost 60 percent.

“We are protecting hundreds of thousands of Michigan homeowners, businesses, and farmers from paying a whopping increase in their electric bills, which would have been among the highest in the nation,” Granholm said in a statement. “The cost of doing business in Michigan would have skyrocketed, and despite the short-term gain from its construction, this project would have been a job-killer and a roadblock in our efforts to bring new economic development investments to Michigan.”

Environmental groups and some Roger City residents are celebrating the end of the years-long permit process.

“We in Rogers City are profoundly grateful for this decision,” Jean Veselenak, a resident of Rogers City said in a statement. “The cost of Wolverine coal would have meant diminished health, diminished economy, and great injury to our environment which sustains our lives. Wolverine must now put its head to the real thing; wind, solar; and new technology that already exists in Michigan. Our families deserve these jobs and their health after long promises.”

Late last year the MDNRE approved an air permit for a Consumers Energy coal-fired power plant to be built at the company’s Karn-Weadock complex near Bay City.

CMS Energy, the parent company of Consumers Energy, has acknowledged that changing environmental regulations make the development of that plant uncertain.