Residents in Summerfield Township are speaking out against a planned battery storage facility, though a state law that takes effect next month leaves them powerless to stop it.
Local Jeff Walker purchased his home “in the middle of nowhere” three years ago to raise a family, but he told WTVG Consumers Energy is now planning to build a large battery storage facility as close as 300 feet from his home.
“Every time we open our back door, we just picture like our dogs and future kids running around in the backyard, you know?” Walker said. “What we didn’t picture was a bunch of huge containers full of lithium ion batteries back there.”
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MORE NEWS: Gretchen Whitmer claims she’s ‘keeping energy costs low’ but Michigan is 10th highest in U.S.
Public Act 233, signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last November, restricts local authority to regulate the location and permitting of utility scale wind, solar, and energy storage facilities, transferring that authority to the Michigan Public Service Commission. The commission’s three members are appointed by the governor.
The legislation requires the MPSC to approve such projects if applicants meet certain enumerated requirements, while allowing local governments to enact a “compatible renewable energy ordinance” that does require local approval as long as requirements are not more restrictive than what’s set out in the state’s Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act.
“Thus, local units are prohibited from adopting standards such as set-backs or maximum acreage provisions if they are more restrictive than the standards established in the Act,” according to the Grand Rapids law firm Mika Meyers. “Moreover, if a local unit denies an application for a renewable energy project, the applicant can ask the MPSC to overrule the denial.”
The legislation, approved by the Legislature’s Democratic majority in party line votes, circumvents local opposition to many proposed renewable energy projects across the state that are critical to Whitmer’s climate change goals.
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Bill sponsors contend the change “will drive billions of dollars of federal and private investment in Michigan, creating good-paying local jobs and helping the state meet its clean energy goals.”
Whitmer signed the bill in November along with others that force a 100% clean energy standard by 2040, create a new office dedicated to transitioning workers to the industry, and task the MPSC with considering “climate and equity” in energy decisions.
The “Clean Energy & Climate Action Package,” Whitmer said in a statement, “will lower household utility costs by an average of $145 a year, create 160,000 good-paying jobs, and bring nearly $8 billion of federal tax dollars home to Michigan for clean energy projects.”
Republicans opposed what they described as a “brown-out bundle” of bills that they predict will make the state more vulnerable to outages and increase energy prices for Michiganders. House Republicans repeatedly attempted to amend the legislation to halt the changes if rates increase too much, but where shot down by Democrats who control the chamber, Bridge Michigan reports.
The result is leaving officials in Summerfield Township and others scrambling to enact a Compatible Renewable Energy Ordinance that doesn’t conflict with the new law.
“The advantage of the CREO, if you want to look at it that way, is that you can work with the developer to try to mitigate some of the things that might offend the residents,” Amy Reiter, chair of the township’s planning commission, told WTVG.
Walker said he’s especially concerned about safety, noting lithium fires are far more difficult to extinguish than other types of blazes.
“We didn’t really think we were going to have to keep gas masks potentially on hand, you know, just in case,” he said. “From what I know, it sounds like these things can catch fire pretty regularly.”
“I don’t think our fire department is quite equipped to deal with that,” Walker said. “From what I understand, these lithium fires can’t be put out with just water.”
According to WTVG, the township “can’t stop” the proposed project.
Local governments now have until Nov. 29 to approve a CREO that allows officials to make requests from residents for developers, such as privacy fencing, setbacks, and other precautions.
The CREO also requires developers to pay $2,000 per megawatt to local governments they can use for police and fire protection, WTVG reports.