The board of directors of the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce Friday announced that it favored a Michigan energy policy that preserves electric competition, promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency, and also provides the opportunity for businesses to generate and sell energy into the grid.

In short, the chamber said, its members have benefited from the state Customer Choice and Electric Reliability Act of 2000. The chamber policy opposes current efforts to eliminate or restrict the current electric choice program which has benefited many of its members and has helped make Michigan more competitive with neighboring states.

However, the chamber also said it supports of an aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in Michigan, which would require the state's utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources. It has been noted that a state's ability to attract energy-related businesses is directly related to its own commitment to alternative and renewable energy.

The chamber's position paper calls for a Michigan RPS that is aggressive, reasonably achievable and incorporate competitive bidding of renewable projects to ensure ratepayers get the highest return on their investment.

Current Michigan RPS proposals in the state Legislature are tied to other bills that would restrict electric competition. Utilities argue that they need assurance as to their customer count before making major investments in new electric plants to meet an RPS.

Also, the chamber policy states that energy efficiency is one of the most cost effective ways of reducing the need for additional generating capacity while reducing costs. The chamber supports a state-wide energy efficiency program with emphasis on those measures that provide the greatest benefit.

The policy also supports "net metering" to provide payment to those who generate power in excess of their own needs.  The Chamber policy also promotes "distributed generation" to allow diverse sources of energy to contribute power to the grid to provide greater diversity and reliability.

A copy of the Muskegon Chamber's energy policy is available at: 
www.muskegon.org/PDF/ChamberPosition-MI_Energy_Policy.pdf

Reprinted from IT News
March 17, 2008