I am from Georgetown Township and lead the “Save the Campbell” effort. Indications from the Georgetown and Jamestown Township Boards are that they will be passing what I am also requesting of this board and the other town boards of Ottawa County. The utilities committee of the Georgetown Township Board unanimously approved it, and it appears the full board of Georgetown Township will in the coming weeks.
The planned 2025 closure and demolition of the county’s Campbell electric generating plant, combined with rapid 2025 re-start of Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant to try to make up for it, is dangerous and economically wasteful. We are talking about reckless to the tune of billions of dollars, and even potentially risking the lives of many West Michiganders.
The former lead engineer at Palisades, Alan Blind, has gone public that it is unfit for quick restart, saying: “I’m pro-nuclear, but they selected the wrong horse to ride to town on.” In contrast, the Campbell plant is demonstrably safe, reliable and affordable to operate, as it is showing right now in the way it reliably, safely, and affordably provides electric for 1 million regional residents. It is hard to believe the Michigan Public Service Commission has approved the current plan; hopefully we can persuade them and the other relevant parties to delay its implementation.
There is no good reason the closure and demolition of the Campbell plant should happen any sooner than the closure of East Michigan’s Monroe plant in 2032. By every environmental metric the Monroe plant should be closed before the Campbell plant, because over $1 billion was invested in the last decade in the Campbell plant, making it one of the cleanest. In contrast, the Monroe plant is in the top 10 most polluting plants in the nation. West Michigan is getting politically shafted by the current plan. Consumers Energy can delay the closure of the Campbell plant until 2032 like DTE is doing with the Monroe plant. Ottawa County should take the necessary measures to stop it.
This request is fully consistent with our electric grid operator MISO’s recommendation “to delay resource retirements to reliably manage the anticipated growth in electricity demand.” Here is another quote from MISO: “MISO and the Organization of MISO States released the annual OMS-MISO survey results, which indicate a growing capacity deficit beginning in the 2025/26 planning year.” The most expert entity on our regional grid is thus recommending what I am asking this board to request.
Hopefully Consumers Energy would agree to delay the closure of the Campbell plant at the united request of Ottawa County to do so. But if it does not, there are a range of options that Ottawa County has to get Consumers Energy to do so. These options include possible legal action, the County effectively stepping into the role of regulator of Consumers Energy, municipalization of the Campbell plant and placing it in an electric cooperative, and others. An option would need to be chosen which would receive broad support in the county. But before worrying about the next step, our focus now should be getting every town and county board in the county requesting delay of closure.
In order to accomplish this request, I would ask this Board to put it on the agenda and approve signing the requested letter. I have provided to each Board member the draft letter that is available at the SaveTheCampbell.com website (at https://savethecampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/request-to-delay-the-closure-of-Campbell-plant.pdf ).
Thanks so much for your consideration of this request.
Joseph Parnell McCarter