The planned battery plant in the heart of Ottawa County, like Consumers Energy’s planned demolition of the Campbell plant, is dangerous and all part of the Net Zero agenda being imposed upon us not only by Michigan leaders like Whitmer and Nessel but also world leaders in the UN:
It is important to understand that Consumers Energy’s plan to close Campbell, Key Capture Energy’s planned battery plant, and area farmers being approached to sell their properties for conversion into solar panel fields, are all part of one Net Zero agenda, and so the response needs to be comprehensive as well. Key Capture Energy is looking to contract with Consumers Energy to help Consumers Energy in its Net Zero agenda in Ottawa County and beyond.
The effective way to thwart this Net Zero agenda centers around forming an electric cooperative for most of Ottawa County that acquires the Campbell plant to keep it operating and that replaces Consumers Energy in Ottawa County. An Ottawa County member-owned electric cooperative can embrace responsible fossil fuel plants as the foundation of successful Michigan electric baseload at the current time, and thwart the Net Zero agenda by legal means. It will deprive Key Capture Energy of the needed party to contract with. We do not need BESS when the combination of gas and coal are our baseload electric, because they can be controlled according to electric demand, unlike solar and wind.
Additional tools should also be employed, including taxation of the environmental costs of solar/wind/battery, and ordinances that restrict solar/wind/battery. But it just needs to be kept in mind that Consumers Energy and DTE are likely going to legally challenge such efforts, as they already are, and using utility rate payer money to do so. We need to wean ourselves off of Consumers Energy and DTE, with their Net Zero agenda, so they cannot use our electric utility money to fight their Net Zero legal battles and implement their Net Zero agenda.
We need local political leaders on board with this approach and willing to pursue it. We are making progress in this effort, one township board at a time.