The Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth Green Jobs Conference was a rousing success attended by more than 1,400 eager participants. United States Senator’s Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin gave opening remarks about the role Washington plays in assisting Michigan’s efforts to grow its green economy, followed by an informative panel discussion including Kate Gordon of the Apollo Alliance, Skip Pruss of DELEG, and Chris Adamo from Senator Stabenow’s Washington office.

The Keynote speaker was Van Jones, President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation who talked about the President’s vision for economic recovery and sustained growth, with closing remarks by U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis and Governor Jennifer Granholm. Fifteen Breakout Sessions were offered on green jobs, training, education, and key developments in wind, solar, and biomass, and were conducted by leading experts in education and industry.

On April 28th, Michigan GREEN met individually with 3 State Representatives and State Senator Patricia Birkholz (24th District) to showcase our non-profit association and the initiatives we’re championing, including the innovative Project EverGREEN Schools. The 3 representatives are members of the House Energy Committee and included Chairman Jeff Mayes (96th District), Paul Opsommer (93rd District), and Dan Scripps (101st District).  Senator Birkholz is a member of the Senate Energy Policy & Public Utilities Committee. Discussion centered on increasing the current 150 kW net metering limit which is one of the lowest in the country, to 1 or 2 megawatt and position Michigan with the leading renewable energy states. The legislators also listened to our points that the low net metering limit economically penalizes schools who operate an on-site renewable energy system sized to their facility, and that proposed legislation disallows 3rd party ownership, or private investment, of these systems.  The meetings were deemed a great success highlighted by Representative Scripps signing our Say Yes To Green Schools petition, with support for our mission being expressed by all.

The Roosevelt Institution is a nation-wide network of student "think-tanks" representing over 7,000 students and 85 college campuses.  The conference focused on environmental and energy policy issues, with university students from around the Midwest presenting their articles that appear in the Roosevelt Institution’s Spring 09 journal, "Growing a Green Midwestern Economy."

Russell served on a four-person panel discussing revolving loan funds, sharing his knowledge and experience as director of a revolving loan program for Bay College.  The Northern Lights Energy Program was referenced in the journal article written by J. Cory Connolly, a junior at Michigan State University.  Mr. Russell was joined on the panel by State Representative Dan Scripps, State Representative Paul Opsommer, and John Sarver from the Bureau of Energy Systems at the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth.

A potentially powerful and highly motivated coalition is pressing for changes in state and federal utility regulation to enable private investment in renewable energy and efficiency in the U.S. educational system. This broad group of environmental advocates and educators wants a national energy policy for schools, the specific elements of which share foundations with rights established under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). Depending on how it is imposed, however, the new policy might compromise some segments of lines that traditionally divide state and federal utility regulation.

Through rules prescribed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), PURPA attempted to overcome barriers to private investment in distributed generation, including renewable energy. These barriers variously included burdensome utility-type state or federal regulation, punitive utility rates for backup, supplementary and interruptible power, a utility's refusal to connect with nonutility generators under reasonable terms and its refusal to purchase excess energy from customer-generators at reasonable prices, or to purchase it at all.

Michigan Wind Power is a company that is on the forefront of the renewable energy industry, making it affordable for the working man here in Michigan. We sell lower profile wind units that reduce the energy needed in any type of facility, be it a home or a school. While downloading the latest wind unit software to my computer, I had a " good idea!"  These wind units are simple enough for a Building Trades Class to install and would produce 200-700Kwh/month for a school, depending on the wind, (some schools may want more units for more power). Then there are the pages of streaming data coming from the computerized interface program that would give several classes real time information to work with, relative to their studies. Science, Math, Geography and Technology classes could all benefit from this data. Students could visualize their own shrinking carbon footprint, while monitoring the savings of the renewable power generated into their school. This idea became Michigan Wind Power's, "Wind In Schools Program". WISP