Detroit (WWJ) -- Michigan’s top green energy experts and innovators expressed a mixture of immediate frustration and long-term optimism about the future of the renewable power industry in our state during Embracing A Green Michigan - Carbon Culture At The Crossroads, a half-day conference highlighting the work that's being done in Michigan to develop new technologies and new thinking about the environment.
The event took place Tuesday, on the campus of Wayne State University, in partnership with WSU’s URC partners, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University along with NextEnergy.
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.
As keynote speaker, 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.
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.
Learn more about the event at this link.
View photos from the event here.
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