Michigan: State Gives Consumers Energy Permit For Coal-Fired Power Plant

[Purveyor]

Christina Rogers / The Detroit News

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality awarded an air permit to Consumers Energy today to build an 830-megawatt, coal-fired plant in Bay County, moving the controversial project one step closer to reality.

The $2 billion project is expected to create 1,800 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs after the start of operation in 2017. Utility officials said the new plant will help diversify Consumers' electricity-generating resources and retire several other less efficient coal-burning units near Bay City.

The agency's decision comes several months after another state regulator, the Michigan Public Service Commission, issued a report finding no new coal-power plants are needed in the state for the next 13 years unless Consumers Energy retires existing plants. Consumers provides electricity for 1.8 million customers statewide.

Environmental groups decried the air permit's approval as a major setback to efforts to move Michigan toward more clean energy investments, a key policy initiative being pushed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to spur growth in the state's languishing economy.

"We are disappointed by the failure of Gov. Granholm to keep her promise to move Michigan toward a clean energy economy," Anne Woiwode, director of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, said in a statement.

http://detnews.com/article/20091229/BIZ/912290393/State-gives-Consumers-Energy-permit-for-coal-fired-power-plant

[Ernesto]

1. Clean Coal!

(sorry)