The first objective of the “Save The Campbell” effort is to save the Campbell from 2025 closure/demolition, but the second objective very much tied into the first is getting local control of electric for the rest of Ottawa County which does not yet have it. Here are just some of the reasons we need local control:
- Save our county’s valuable Campbell plant from precipitous and unnecessary closure/demolition
- Thwart the MPSC (Michigan Public Service Commission which regulates the Consumers Energy monopoly) policy which involves rapid closure of fossil fuel plants and taking away local control of zoning when it comes to solar panel fields
- Introduce needed competition into our electric instead of the current monopolistic Consumers Energy model. It is possible with local control to introduce bidding among competitors for a certain service term.
- Reduce the cost of electric for Consumers Energy customers. Zeeland residents with local control are paying 58% less than Consumers Energy customers.
- Stop the unnecessary and inconvenient 2-tier pricing structure that Consumers Energy introduced several years ago to persuade people to use electric at inconvenient hours.
- Make sure the Campbell and other plants are implementing best environmentally responsible practices so that the health of Ottawa County citizens is not compromised by our energy policy. We are the ones closest to our own fossil fuel plants, and we will be the ones most hurt if they are not environmentally responsible. There are effective ways to environmentally manage fossil fuel plants.
- The MPSC has too cozy a relation with the Consumers Energy/DTE monopolies, and it has shown it cannot be trusted to properly regulate them.
There are various ways for the rest of Ottawa County to get this local control, but arguably the easiest and most practical is by Ottawa County adopting a county charter and then using it as the legal avenue. An elected electric coop board could be established for the rest of Ottawa County like Zeeland and Grand Haven already have, and the County could then purchase and place Consumers Energy assets into the coop. The coop could pay the County via a municipal bond, so the County itself would be left without debt from the transaction. This municipal bond could be paid off by the coop over time from revenues generated. It may be too that the Trump Administration would be willing to help it with loans, since it would help with the energy policy the Trump Administration is pursuing with its national emergency program.
Instead of then seeking to run their own electric, this elected coop board could then evaluate bids from competing private entities, including Consumers Energy, to manage the electric and its assets for a given term.