Name: Environmental groups contesting Consumers Energy rooftop solar proposal
Brand: michiganradio.org
SKU: michiganradio-org-19
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Environmental groups contesting Consumers Energy rooftop solar proposal

preview

WUOMFMConsumers Energy is hoping to slash what it pays rooftop solar customers for the electricity they produce. The utility wants to compensate those customers 46% less for their electricity than what it currently charges. Margrethe Kearney is with the Environmental Law and Policy Center. She says rooftop solar customers are actually entitled to more, not less, than the utility's own rate. That's because rooftop solar electricity is used locally. "It keeps you [Consumers Energy] from having to send it [electricity] to my neighbor from some power station miles away, " says Kearney. "So it's saving tons of use on the transmission and the distribution systems." The Environmental Law and Policy Center is asking the Michigan Public Service Commission to do a study on the actual costs and benefits of rooftop solar, and in the meantime,&nbsp; to keep the current "net metering" scheme of valuing rooftop solar. Net metering means rooftop solar customers are compensated the same rate for the electricity they produce as what the utility charges. In a statement, Consumers Energy spokeswoman Katie Carey says, "the rate we filed was approved twice by the Michigan Public Service Commission as the way to implement the requirements of the 2016 energy law, and we are simply following past commission precedent." She adds that the utility plans to invest heavily in large-scale solar farms over the next two decades. "We are not anti-solar," she says. "In fact, through our company's Clean Energy Plan, we have one of the boldest solar investment plans in the nation, with plans to invest in over 6,000 [megawatts] of new solar to serve all of our customers in Michigan." Consumers Energy is one of Michigan Radio's corporate sponsors. Tags:&nbsp;Environmental groups and consumer advocates want electric utilities to think more long term. The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, the Michigan Environmental Council, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club formed a coalition and hired a consultant to do an analysis of Michigan’s future demands on the electric distribution system. The coalition submitted testimony to the Michigan Public Service Commission regarding a proposed rate increase from Consumers Energy.A report this week from the U.S. government found coal consumption in 2019 was the lowest it’s been since 1978. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, electricity demand is down even more this year, and some utilities are shutting down their more expensive-to-operate coal-burning power plants. Michigan’s two largest power companies, Consumers Energy and DTE Energy already have shuttered some coal-fired plants.Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wants what she calls "some shared sacrifice," from utilities to limit how much they get back from customers for pandemic-related costs.The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB), a consumers advocacy group, says low-income gas and electric customers "are poised to experience a crisis of service like rarely seen before." The group says there could be an unprecedented surge of people losing heat and electricity, after the state's moratorium banning utility shutoffs to low income customers ends on June 1st.&nbsp;

WUOMFMConsumers Energy is hoping to slash what it pays rooftop solar customers for the electricity they produce. The utility wants to compensate those customers 46% less for their electricity than what it currently charges. Margrethe Kearney is with the Environmental Law and Policy Center. She says rooftop solar customers are actually entitled to more, not less, than the utility's own rate. That's because rooftop solar electricity is used locally. "It keeps you [Consumers Energy] from having to send it [electricity] to my neighbor from some power station miles away, " says Kearney. "So it's...

public

Tracy Samilton

michiganradio.org

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Environmental groups contesting Consumers Energy rooftop solar proposal

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS