- “The County Board does not have legal power to do anything about this.”
That is NOT what the Michigan Constitution says. It says the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has the authority to “enter or to intervene in any action or certificate proceeding involving the services, charges or rates of any privately owned public utility furnishing services or commodities to rate payers within the County.” (Article VII, Section 15 of the Constitution of the State of Michigan, 1964, as amended). And it even gives the potential to add to that power if the County at least temporarily should get county charter status.
- “It is too late. The plant will not have the coal inventory to operate.”
What is most important at this stage regards dismantlement, not closure per se. There is a way to close that would not be expensive to re-start. The Campbell complex is best used in part or whole as a coal plant for generating reliable, affordable electric, including to provide such electric to a data center along with County residents. In the long-term it will be a political liability for those on the wrong side of this political issue, unwilling to defend local control of reliable, affordable electric.
- “I am a tree hugger; we need to get away from coal.”
Coal is one of the few sources of electric where all of the major negatives come with commercially available means to effectively mitigate the negatives. Over $1 billion was spent in the last decade on its anti-polluting equipment which is quite effective. Even on the issue of CO2 emissions, which I do not believe is truly the crisis that some assert, direct air carbon capture is commercially available such that its CO2 emissions could be matched by CO2 capture which can be purchased.
- “We got our ‘second opinion’ when MPSC/Consumers Energy recently said again the Campbell plant needs to close.”
Using medical analogy, getting a second opinion does not mean asking the same doctor twice, but asking a different doctor. The second opinion in the Campbell case is NERC and MISO advice, and they indicate the MPSC/Consumers Energy plan is unduly risky and advise against such premature closures. The second opinion says we need to “save the Campbell”.
- “The Campbell provides electric for far more than Ottawa County, so it is really not a county matter.”
The Campbell indeed currently provides reliable electric for 1 million regional residents, and that is far more than the Ottawa County population. But in the best interest of Ottawa County, most or all of its electric energy should be used right here in Ottawa County. The Campbell should be partially used to supply a data center with electric at higher rates so that regular county customer rates can be lowered. It is important to have our own electric generating capacity right here in the county so that Ottawa County has control over the electric generation it needs to prosper, as the Michigan Constitution allows.