Dear Members of the Georgetown Township Board:
This communication is intended to provide you with an update and request for consideration related to the Campbell plant and our electric utility service, which I hope to deliver in a more abbreviated form at your meeting this evening. Your concern of this important issue has been very appreciated.
We have had plenty of warnings that the current Net Zero path is leading us into dangerous territory:
- In recent weeks Spain experienced a nationwide daylong blackout which nearly brought down a significant part of Europe’s grid.[1] This blackout brought Spain to its knees, given virtually all societal systems stopped working.[2]
- The UK’s de-industrialization as it copes with the highest electric prices in the world and a tenuous grid[3]
- NERC and MISO reports, warning of the effect of precipitous coal plant closures[4]
The best estimates are a 4.7 gigawatt shortfall in our regional grid by 2027 if planned plant closures like the Campbell proceed.[5]
This summarizes the current status of the “Save The Campbell” effort:
- Closure of the Campbell in the coming weeks is essentially a given, but the main practical question now concerns the timing of its dismantlement
- I hope the Ottawa County Board leadership changes its mind, but the leadership has stated on public media since the passage of its Campbell Resolution that Consumers Energy officials answered their questions, and so they seem unwilling to do anything more.[6] I fail to see how Consumers Energy has answered the grid questions, because it seems they have simply said what they have publicly been saying for the last few years, with no satisfactory rebuttal of the NERC and MISO warnings, along with other warning indications. I plan to speak before the County Board again tomorrow, but I must admit that it is probable nothing more will be done by the County Board regarding the Campbell absent some initiative of township board(s).
- The Trump Administration is suing the State of Michigan and some other states over its Net Zero legislation and activity which runs contrary to its energy executive order.[7] I am thankful for what the Trump Administration has been doing, but I think we must be realistic that it is unlikely to save the Campbell from demolition.
- Consumers Energy and its Michigan regulator MPSC seem determined to pursue the Net Zero agenda despite warnings of its danger, including the rapid closure and demolition of the Campbell.
- There are still many open questions about the planned restart of the shutdown Palisades nuclear reactor, and the only sure things are that it will be expensive, risky and of questionable reliability.[8]
One option that Georgetown and other township boards have is to do nothing, but one huge negative of this approach is that the longer local action is delayed, in all likelihood solutions will become much more expensive. For example, once the Campbell is demolished, resolving energy shortfalls in our region will be much more expensive and take longer. And the MPSC does not plan to stop there, but to proceed with more closures of fossil fuel plants and attempted replacement with solar and wind on Michigan farmlands and forests, overthrowing local control in the process. Ideally it would be the County Board leading the effort, but the County Board majority seems unwilling at this time.
Recommended actions at this point:
- Invite major Campbell plant stakeholders to mediation discussion table with the goal of leaving the Campbell intact the coming several years so that it could be inexpensively restarted, especially if grid problems necessitate. Invitees could include representatives from Consumers Energy, the Trump Administration, MPSC, the County Board, and other township boards.
- Set up an exploratory committee represented by interested county township boards, working with an interested data center company that can help with the financing and obtain some of the electric, to consider the possibility of purchasing Consumers Energy’s interest in the Campbell , via a local electric cooperative, facilitated by the assistance of the County Board.
In order for mediation discussions to succeed, it is important that no legal options (including legal action and municipalization) be precluded should Consumers Energy proceed with rapid demolition of the Campbell plant.
I would request the Utilities Committee of the GT Board consider these possibilities, and decide whether to pursue either one of them or both.
Sincerely,
Joseph Parnell McCarter
Volunteer leader, SaveTheCampbell.com
Georgetown Township, MI
[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/power-restored-spain-portugal-net-zero-becomes-headache-brussels, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDRImWDLHeE and https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/world/europe/power-outage-spain-portugal-france.html
[2] Given Michigan winter weather is far harsher, if this happened here during winter it would be far more devastating, as Texas’ was which happened several years ago during an unusual cold period there.
[3] https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2033529/uk-electricity-prices
[4] https://americaspower.org/nerc-issues-an-urgent-warning-on-grid-reliability/#:~:text=The%20North%20American%20Electric%20Reliability,demand%20driven%20by%20data%20centers%2C and https://www.misoenergy.org/meet-miso/media-center/2024/oms-miso-survey-results-indicate-tight-resource-capacity-in-the-upcoming-planning-year/
[5] https://manhattan.institute/article/overcoming-obstacles-in-americas-energy-grid
[6] https://savethecampbell.com/the-current-ottawa-county-board-majority-fails-to-see-a-real-problem-with-the-precipitous-campbell-closure-and-the-net-zero-agenda-which-underlies-it-so-of-course-they-are-unwilling-to-do-anything-su/
[7] https://www.themidwesterner.news/2025/05/trump-sues-dana-nessel-gretchen-whitmer-over-lawfare-targeting-the-fossil-fuel-industry/?sfnsn=mo
[8] https://savethecampbell.com/the-current-palisades-plan-is-risky-and-expensive-and-it-is-an-incredibly-inappropriate-replacement-for-the-campbell/