EGLE’s release of the MI Healthy Climate Plan will put Michigan on track to be a leader in the advanced energy revolution.
LANSING, April 21, 2022 – Today, Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council (Michigan EIBC) and Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) applauded Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s release of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s (EGLE) MI Healthy Climate Plan. The administration established a goal of economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 when Governor Whitmer signed Executive Directive 2020-10. The MI Healthy Climate Plan focuses on an interim roadmap to 52 percent greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The roadmap to 2030 includes several recommendations that focus on growing the state’s renewable energy and energy storage resources, electrifying transportation and buildings, and making energy efficiency improvements more accessible, among others. A few of the key recommendations include:
- Generate 60 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable resources by adopting a renewable energy standard of 50 percent by 2030.
- Create more favorable conditions for customer-sited behind-the-meter distributed energy resources, like rooftop solar.
- Deploy infrastructure to support 2 million electric vehicles (EVs) on Michigan roads by 2030 and fund incentive programs for the purchase of EVs and EV charging.
- Adopt a statewide energy storage target to deploy 4,000 megawatts (MW) of grid-scale storage by 2040 with interim targets and improve analysis of energy storage resources in utility Integrated Resources Plans through accurate modeling. Energy storage is critical to capturing and efficiently distributing clean, renewable energy, and this target was recently recommended in an energy storage roadmap for the state developed by the Institute for Energy Innovation (IEI) along with Michigan EIBC, 5 Lakes Energy, and Dr. Annick Anctil of Michigan State University.
- Reduce emissions related to heating homes and businesses by 17 percent by 2030.
- Support advanced energy through business development, retention, and attraction.
- Adopt and promote financing opportunities, including through Michigan Saves, on-bill financing, and commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs.
“The MI Healthy Climate plan is an important step in positioning Michigan to be a leader in the advanced energy sector,” said Dr. Laura Sherman, President of Michigan EIBC. “These recommendations are a great start toward supporting Michigan’s advanced energy economy, and will attract and support businesses, creating well-paying energy jobs for Michiganders. The advanced energy sector is ready to put this plan into action, and Michigan EIBC looks forward to working with the administration and legislature to find avenues to implement the plan to promote this growing sector.”
“We applaud the State of Michigan for taking this next important step of moving Michigan’s economy towards a cleaner and more efficient future,” said Michael Weiss, Policy Principal with Advanced Energy Economy. “The MI Healthy Climate Plan lays out some clear targets on the road to carbon neutrality by 2050. There is still much to do, and we look forward to working with Michigan EIBC and others to make Michigan an advanced energy leader.”