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Members of Michigan’s alternative energy community Tuesday expressed a mixture of immediate frustration and long-term optimism about the future of the renewable power industry in our state and nationally.
Skip Pruss, special adviser for alternative energy and the environment to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, urged passage of a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for the state, which would require power companies to generate or buy a certain percentage of their power output from renewable sources.
Speaking at a WWJ Newsradio 950 and University Research Corridor event at Wayne State University, Pruss said it would be irresponsible for Michigan to fail to take advantage of alternatives like wind and solar power. Such power sources, he said, could provide Michigan with the chance to grab a piece of a growing industry, while also limiting its exposure to big fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels.
Pruss also said Michigan policymakers have a moral obligation to support energy alternatives, calling global climate change “the mother of all good reasons” to limit carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.
At a panel discussion after Pruss’ speech, James Croce, CEO of Detroit’s Next Energy Center, lamented that while Michigan was once a leader in developing an alternative energy strategy, the state has fallen behind other states in terms of creating the policies needed to make the industry grow here as well as it should.
Better Policies Needed
However, Croce said, while the state is letting itself become “more and more irrelevant” in terms of energy policy, it is far from irrelevant in terms of resources and talent. He said the level of talent here, the expertise of our manufacturers and capabilities of our universities make him optimistic that Michigan will be able to leverage “our carbon legacy” and become a leader in new energy.
Stephen Forrest, a professor and vice president of research for the University of Michigan, said green business has shown that it can be good business. He also said Michigan’s natural on-shore and offshore wind resources, along with its manufacturing capabilities, put it in a good position be a renewable energy leader. He described himself as “extremely optimistic” and Michigan as a place where “transformation is going on.”
Randal Charlton, director of Wayne State’s TechTown technology business incubator, said Michigan can be a world leader in the business of combating global warming. But, he added that attitudes have to change and a new sense of urgency is needed.
Unlike Europe, Charlton said, the U.S. treats fuels “in an abusive way” and does not do enough to promote conservation and alternative fuels. For that reason, he said, it is not enough for Michigan to make itself a leader among U.S. states when it comes to alternative fuels. He said Michigan needs to start comparing itself to places like Germany, Denmark and Sweden, where the commitment to environmentalism is deeper.
Soji Adelaja, director of the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University said recognizing the importance of alternative fuels is part of recognizing that the world has changed and that Michigan is now part of a “flat world” global economy. Michigan was a technology leader in the past, he said, and is in a good position to be one in the future – if we change the “Michigan mindset” and come to terms with new realities.
A good way to show a change in mindset, Adelaja said, would be to adopt an RPS. He said RPS statutes are one big factor that separates states making big progress in alternative energy from those that are making less progress. He also said the state’s universities have a big role to play going forward, in educating the state about the need for sustainable power and helping to develop the technologies that will make it a reality.
A second panel at the event featured representatives of Michigan’s traditional industries – autos, steel, glass – and representatives of the emerging energy industry, and how they’re coping with energy changes.
Ray S. Siada, corporate energy manager at Guardian Industries Corp., the glassmaker that is a prodigious user of energy, complained that Michigan lacks an aggressive state policy to promote energy efficiency. He also said Guardian invested in a wind farm to provide part of its power needs at a plant in India.
Paul Savage, CEO of New York-based Nextek Power, which is manufacturing its distributed power generation accessories in Detroit, said he’d like to work more closely with the auto industry – since his “boxes” are virtually identical in function to the power control boxes in hybrid electric vehicles.
Ronald P. Krupitzer, vice president for automotive applications at the American Iron and Steel Institute, pointed out that steel has a lower carbon footprint than producing aluminum, other metals or carbon fiber.
Mary Beth Stanek, director of environment, energy and commercialization at the General Motors Corp. Public Policy Center, defended the auto industry against charges of foot-dragging on environmental advances, saying GM now has a large demonstration project of hydrogen vehicles in the field. She also said there are other factors behind ethanol production in recent food price inflation, including poor harvests in some parts of an increasingly food-interdependent world, and a weak dollar.
Aaron Crumm, co-founder of Ann Arbor fuel cell maker Adaptive Materials in Ann Arbor, pointed out that he’s helping run the largest fuel cell company in Michigan, with 57 employees making solid oxide fuel cells that run on commonly available fuels like propane. They’re intended as higher-powered, longer-lasting replacements for batteries in high-end applications like the military.
View a video highlighting the event and hear podcasts from the event at this link.
Also at the event, Version 2.0 of the Michigan Alternative Energy Directory was released, compiled by the staff of WWJ Newsradio 950 to demonstrate the extensive resources and capabilities of Michigan’s alternative energy industry.
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