The driest summer in more than a decade prompted an Ohio watershed district this summer to take the unprecedented step of limiting the use of water for oil and gas fracking.

The restrictions applied only to Atwood Lake, a popular boating and fishing spot southeast of Canton that has experienced a foot and a half drop in water levels over the past few months of drought.

It’s a scenario some environmentalists anticipated years ago, saying that climate change will require state and local officials to more carefully regulate the use of water for oil and gas extraction.

“They’re not being proactive enough,” said Leatra Harper, director of the FreshWater Accountability Project, stressing that the lakes are public resources. “The obvious issue is there aren’t adequate protections.”

Hydraulic fracturing, as it’s more formally known, pumps millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals down into oil and gas wells. The process causes cracks in petroleum-bearing rock, and sand in the fluid props the cracks open. Oil and gas flows from the fractures into the well and up to the surface.

The process uses millions of gallons of water for each horizontally drilled well, and well pads built within the last 12 years often have six wells. The water can be recovered and recycled to some extent. Eventually, though, the water must be disposed of in underground injection wells. That step permanently removes it from the water cycle.

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District manages ten lakes and four dry dams in southeastern Ohio for purposes of flood control, recreation and conservation. One of its biggest customers for water sales is the oil and gas industry.

“We’re not in a crisis situation by any stretch of the imagination, but this was just our balancing act to make sure we protect, as much as we can, all of our missions,” said Craig Butler, chief executive of the district. He estimated less than one inch of Atwood Lake’s decline can be attributed to oil- and gas-related withdrawals.

On August 28, the district curtailed water withdrawals by 75% from Atwood Lake. The following week, it curtailed withdrawals from the lake completely.

Lots of water

Under Ohio law, oil and gas drilling operations are generally allowed to withdraw from state waters an average of up to 2 million gallons per day in any 30-day period. Sixty million gallons would fill nearly 91 Olympic-sized swimming pools. 

While the total number of gallons sold is huge, it’s relatively small compared to the billions of gallons in the district’s lakes. Butler compared it to two or three sheets in a notebook.

“We’re really comfortable when we say it’s a negligible impact based on the size of our reservoirs,” Butler said.

Oil and gas companies pay a price for the water — around $3 per 1,000 gallons, according to Ted Auch, Midwest program director for FracTracker. He and other critics think the price should be higher.

“We charge as much as we can,” Butler answered, but if the district’s price gets too high, oil and gas companies can “stick their straw in” elsewhere, such as where a stream crosses private property. Then they may be able to suck out even more without a formal agreement with the watershed organization.

And because some of those sources flow into the district’s lakes, the effect on the district’s water resources would be largely the same, without the district getting revenue from the sales. Some of the funds from the oil and gas industry have paid for efforts to improve water quality and minimize flooding to improve the area’s resilience to climate change, Butler added.

The situation reflects a shortcoming in state law, said Melinda Zemper, a spokesperson for Save Ohio Parks.

“It is clear our state legislators ignore the depletion and contamination of our precious fresh drinking water used in the fracking process,” she said. “And there will always be another landowner who wants oil and gas revenue from leasing mineral rights or selling water flowing through his or her property.”

Operators recycle a lot of the water that’s withdrawn, and the fracking process has gotten more efficient over the years, said Mike Chadsey, a spokesperson for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

Getting hard data on recycling is difficult, however. FracFocus, a data clearinghouse, has some data on the composition of fracking fluids, but reporting is voluntary.

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, oil and gas ranks seventh out of its eight registered water use categories. The agency’s 2022 water withdrawals map shows those other categories include public water supplies, agriculture, utilities and other classifications.

Total water withdrawals for the oil and gas industry that year were about 5.17 billion gallons, according to data provided by Karina Cheung, an ODNR spokesperson. A 2024 U.S. Geological Survey report said peak withdrawals reached approximately 5.75 billion gallons in 2017.  

Looking ahead

Questions about future water use for fracking will remain after the current drought ends — possibly soon from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. 

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District does a careful review of any company’s request for water withdrawals before a contract is signed, Butler said. Contracts also say water withdrawals can be curtailed if the district deems it necessary, as it did at Atwood Lake, he added.

Critics like Auch contend various data gaps should be filled to ensure more complete reporting. They also want any pre-withdrawal reviews to be more conservative and forward-looking.

Consideration of potential impacts should focus more on possible water-deficit years like this one, Auch said. Otherwise, “you are rapidly altering the savings bank of your watershed by depleting the resource that it has to carry over from year to year.”

Planning also should cover a longer time horizon, said Julie Weatherington-Rice, a hydrogeologist with Bennett and Williams Environmental Consultants in Columbus. Ohio might generally expect warmer, wetter and wilder weather as climate change continues.

Among other things, Ohio is seeing some intense storms, as well as periods of heavy rainfall. Those heavy rains might bump up the total yearly precipitation, but they don’t soak into the ground the way milder, more sustained rains do, Weatherington-Rice said. That could affect groundwater supplies for local areas, causing them to look for backup supplies, she said. And droughts can still occur, as this year shows.  

Water planning also should account for likely migration into Ohio as climate change has more severe impacts elsewhere, Auch said. “We need to start looking at water resources out 10, 15, 30 years.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount gas companies pay for water. It is around $3 per 1,000 gallons of water, not $3 per gallon.

Ohio drought renews worries about massive use of water for fracking is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Ensuring that traditionally disinvested Black and Brown communities are not left behind is essential for a just transition away from carbon-based energy sources. 

At the same time, many of these communities have vast stretches of vacant or underutilized properties, which could present opportunities for clean energy development. 

For instance, in Detroit, city officials are working with DTE Energy to build 33 MW of solar arrays on vacant property around the city. Detroit’s mayor has touted the project as a way to deal with blight while producing clean energy, but neighbors are divided.

Meanwhile, in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, a community-based geothermal project is intentionally bypassing vacant lots, focusing instead on placing the necessary loop fields in alleyways.

“Not every block in the neighborhood even has a vacant lot that could be leveraged,” said Andrew Barbeau, president of The Accelerate Group in Chicago, which is providing technical assistance for the geothermal pilot, in an email. “Further, communities often have other ambitions for that land, whether it is new housing development, parks, greenways, or other beneficial uses.” 

For Blacks in Green, the Chicago-based organization leading the geothermal project, recognition of the role of the project within a broader scope is central to an overall goal of generating economic development and a healthy environment within the community, said Nuri Madina, Sustainable Square Mile director, who serves as point person for the pilot.

“We know that the communities have been underserved. And underserved by definition means that we have not gotten our fair share of taxpayer investment in the communities. We know what our streets look like. And one of the major assets in the community, which is not really viewed as an asset, is our vacant lots,” Madina said.

The geothermal pilot 

Conventional geothermal systems require substantial plots of land to lay the subterranean loop fields that circulate both hot and cold water — land that is often scarce in densely populated urban areas. 

But while West Woodlawn has a number of vacant lots, they are not being utilized for the project. Instead, alleys provide a potential solution for constructing geothermal loop fields, along with allowing for connection points for houses and multifamily buildings within the pilot footprint, Barbeau said.

“The good news is that based on the system design, we have more than enough capacity in the alleys to serve the load of the blocks we have modeled. The modeling also so far is showing us that the shared network model would require 20-30%  less wells than if each home built their own system,” Barbeau said in an email.

Locating the bulk of the geothermal infrastructure in alleyways also sidesteps the underground congestion of existing gas, electric and water infrastructure on city streets, said Mark Nussbaum, owner and principal of Architectural Consulting Engineers in Oak Park, Illinois.

“There’s a lot of stuff happening out near the street. It doesn’t mean it’s not possible to coordinate it, but it’s just what’s nice about the alley concept is, it’s kind of unused for utilities typically,” Nussbaum said.

Blank slate versus bright future 

“White flight” and housing segregation have left many U.S. cities with sections of vacant or underinvested property, typically in communities populated by Black and Brown people. 

With roughly 60% of the land area of Chicago, Detroit nonetheless has a much larger proportion of vacant land — approximately 19 square miles. In some neighborhoods,  multiple blocks may only have a single structure remaining, if any at all.  

DTE Energy’s plan to build large-scale solar arrays on some of that land is supported by some residents and municipal officials as a means to reduce illegal dumping and other nuisance crimes while working toward meeting city climate goals — and reducing utility bills for residents. 

But there has also been pushback, largely focused on potential detrimental impact on property values in adjacent properties and limitations on future use of the sites themselves.

“Solar panels will disrupt and destroy entire neighborhoods. There will be no future affordable housing being built anywhere around a solar farm,” councilmember Angela Whitfield-Calloway said during a city council meeting in July, as reported by Planet Detroit. 

Whitfield-Calloway also questions why municipal buildings or sites outside the city limits had not been considered for the solar arrays.

In Chicago, a battery storage facility constructed as part of the Bronzeville Microgrid project administered by electric utility ComEd generated similar debate during an extended period of community input. ComEd officials said the location of the battery facility, in the middle of a stretch of vacant plots near the South Side Community Art Center, was strategic to the overall microgrid project. 

A 40-yard-long mural designed and created by local artists and mounted on the exposed long side of the battery storage facility not only serves to obscure the structure, but also to highlight prominent figures in Black history and culture. While reactions to the mural have been overwhelmingly positive, reception of the battery storage facility itself has been mixed. 

“There were thorough talks with the community and the art community in Bronzeville about what they wanted, what [ComEd] planned to do [with] that battery station, because they did not want it to be an eyesore … they did not want it to just be, you know, brick walls around infrastructure,” Jeremi Bryant, a resident of Bronzeville, told the Energy News Network in February 2021.

For Bruce Montgomery, founder of Bronzeville-based Entrepreneur Success Program and a member of the advisory council for the Community of the Future, the location of the battery storage facility precluded potentially more beneficial future development for the site.

“That lot in most communities probably would have ended up being invested in as more quality residential,” Montgomery told the Energy News Network in February 2021. “But now you’ve taken it up with this box car. … You’ve got big things sitting out in the middle of a vacant lot a couple of doors down from one of the most historic locations in Bronzeville.”

Creating ‘multiple benefits’

For Blacks in Green, what might appear to the casual observer as a vacant lot overtaken by weeds belies its ultimate potential — as an affordable, energy-efficient residential complex, small business owned by a community resident, a much needed basic amenity like a grocery stocking fresh produce — or a native plant garden to attract pollinators.

On June 17, 2023, Blacks in Green collaborated with the Delta Institute to hold a combined Juneteenth celebration and BioBlitz to identify potential sites for green infrastructure. Experts and community residents worked side-by-side to map and measure plant life, insect populations, drainage and other elements during a walking inventory of vacant lots in the area.

In the case of West Woodlawn, installation of geothermal loop fields in its alleys — versus locating them in vacant plots — presents an opportunity to promote climate resiliency through mitigation of persistent urban flooding, by utilizing permeable pavers to replace existing concrete or asphalt, said Madina.

“All of our programs are designed to create multiple benefits,” Madina said.

Projects like the West Woodlawn community geothermal project represent a drive to revive and reinvent Chicago’s Black Wall Street within what once constituted the redline-confined boundaries of the Black population drawn to the city during the Great Migration of the 20th Century.

“In most communities, the vacant lots are really indicative of a declining community. But what we have tried to do is take that negative and turn it into something positive. So if we can take those vacant lots with weeds and debris and turn them into beautiful gardens, that is a very significant improvement in the community,” Madina said.

“So [we] could improve the quality of life, improve the spirit of the people in the community… that vacant lot can provide more than just beauty. It can provide more than just comfort for the residents. It can also provide biodiversity, it can provide pollination, it can provide food for the residents.”

Correction: A 40-yard-long mural was mounted on the side of a ComEd battery storage facility to obscure the structure and highlight prominent figures in Black history and culture. An earlier version of this story misstated its size.

Vacant urban land poses complex questions for clean energy siting is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not include that the advocacy groups’ modeling included one new natural gas plant. The story has been updated.

Xcel Energy’s latest long-range plan for meeting electricity demand in Minnesota includes six new natural gas peaker plants that critics warn could be obsolete before customers are done paying for them.

Comments filed last month by clean energy advocates and the state attorney general’s office push back on the utility’s plan to build a fleet of small fossil fuel plants as it otherwise ramps up clean energy investments. The facilities would operate sparingly, just a few hours at a time on days when the grid is strained and wind, solar and other clean power can’t keep up with demand.

More economical options exist, though, according to a coalition of clean energy groups that hired experts to model alternatives. The study commissioned by the groups concluded Xcel could save ratepayers as much as $3.5 billion by opting for a single new gas plant, and relying more on existing plants, energy storage, efficiency and demand response, and buying surplus power on the regional power grid.

The clean energy groups include Fresh Energy, which publishes the Energy News Network (Fresh Energy’s leadership and policy staff do not have access to ENN’s editorial process.)

The debate is over the utility’s latest integrated resource plan — the first submitted to state regulators since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation last year requiring electric utilities to use 100% clean energy by 2040. Xcel Energy supported the legislation and has proposed various scenarios for achieving the target, but disagreements remain among stakeholders about how to get there, particularly when it comes to cost and equity issues.

Different approaches to modeling

Allen Gleckner, executive lead for policy and programs at Fresh Energy, said Xcel’s gas plant proposal is similar to one in its last integrated resource plan that asked regulators to approve two new peaker plants that would provide as much as 800 megawatts of electricity. Xcel eventually agreed to an open, fuel-neutral bidding process allowing clean energy companies to propose alternatives. That process is still underway, with an administrative law judge expected to make recommendations.

The clean energy groups’ consultants used the same software program as Xcel to arrive at a plan to add a new 374 megawatt gas plant, 3,800-4,800 megawatts of wind, 400 megawatts of solar, and 800 to 1,200 megawatts of energy storage resources by 2030. Extending contracts at existing peaker plants could add 970 megawatts, and energy conservation initiatives could reduce use during high demand times. 

Gleckner said Xcel has taken an exceptionally conservative approach by mostly creating scenarios that did not consider electricity being available from neighboring systems or the MISO regional transmission grid. Gleckner said Xcel does not and has never operated as an island, with MISO delivering power to its customers through a shared resource pool.

“Xcel is using a sort of fiction of modeling because the reality is we’re part of a regional grid,” he said. 

The result is a plan to “build a bunch of new resources that we know are either not compatible with our state laws or are going to be costly and likely to retire early,” he said.

Amelia Vohs, climate program director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, praised Xcel for not asking regulators to extend the life of existing fossil plants, unlike its counterparts in other states. Unlike previous long-range plans, Xcel’s latest imagines a future in which large gas and coal power plants are not the backbone of the system. 

What that grid will look like remains challenging, Vohs said. Adding to the challenge is rising power demand from data centers, manufacturing, and the electrification of buildings and transportation. Even so, Vohs believes clean energy is ready for a leading role.

“It’s a much better solution that’s flexible in this time of uncertainty without making this big commitment to gas resources for the next 40 years,” Vohs said.

Patty O’Keefe, senior field strategist for the Minnesota Sierra Club, said proposed combustion turbine peaker plants pose “significant environmental and public health risks” because they potentially emit more carbon and nitrous oxide than larger, more common combined cycle gas plants. They also tend to be built in communities already suffering higher pollution levels.

The Sierra Club would like Xcel to focus more on energy efficiency than electricity generation in its planning. Efficiency reduces demand and makes “the transition to clean energy smoother and more cost-effective,” O’Keefe said.

Managing risk

Meanwhile, the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has also weighed in, warning that investments made now may become obsolete “stranded assets,” meaning the plants may become uneconomical or forced to retire before they have delivered projected benefits to customers. 

Xcel has acknowledged the risk of stranded assets generally in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, though not specifically in relation to its proposed gas peaker plants.

Utilities are incentivized to build power generation because investors earn a return on capital investment. The attorney general argues that if plants become obsolete or transition to other forms of energy, such as hydrogen, Xcel ratepayers should not have to pay for retrofits and other investments it might have to make to reduce emissions.

In its filings to state regulators, Xcel said it is concerned about having enough firm dispatchable power to meet rising demand quickly during certain times of the day. By 2030, the company will have ended its use of coal for energy generation after closing four coal-burning facilities this decade. The proposal suggests Xcel may need to add even more peaker plants between 2030 and 2040.

Xcel spokesperson Kevin Coss said the company will be “adding a significant amount of wind and solar power to our energy mix” and complementing that generation “with always-available generation — power we can supply any time it’s needed — to reinforce the reliability of the grid.”

Coss said Xcel identifies generation sources in a technology-neutral way so it can decide not to use natural gas combustion plants in the future. The current integrated resource plan calls for fewer firm dispatchable resources than the 2019 version, he said.

The conservative modeling “avoids overreliance on the energy market, which could expose our customers to excessive risk,” Coss said.

Residents, businesses and organizations have until Oct. 4 to send comments on the integrated resource plan to the Public Utilities Commission. The commission is expected to make a decision on the plan in February 2025. 

Minnesota advocates say their alternative to Xcel’s plan for new gas plants could save customers up to $3.5 billion is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A federal grant will help four of Ohio’s largest cities collaborate on new voluntary building performance standards and a resource hub to help commercial building owners save energy and cut emissions.

Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton will use $10 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding to establish the Ohio High Performance Building Hub, which will connect building owners with technical guidance, financing solutions, incentives, training, and other support.

Clean energy advocates and city sustainability leaders hope the program will offer a new path forward in a state where buildings account for about one-fourth of greenhouse gas emissions but state lawmakers have gutted mandatory energy efficiency measures. The state ranked 44th in a recent state energy efficiency policy report card.

“All four of those cities have ambitious climate goals, and addressing existing buildings is a crucial part of that,” said Nat Ziegler, a program manager with Power a Clean Future Ohio, which is a partner on the grant. They expect lessons learned from the work and the hub can eventually help other cities and towns in Ohio and across the Midwest.

Buildings account for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions in the four cities participating in the grant: greater than 60% for Cincinnati and from 50% to 55% for Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton. The new program will specifically target emissions from more than 421 million square feet of commercial building space among the four cities.

“This is a great way to really jump-start a lot of that work,” said Erin Beck, assistant director for Sustainable Columbus.

The hub could help building owners navigate funding under the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as through bonds issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Agency or local port authorities or lending from green banks or more traditional financial institutions.  

Standards vs. codes

Existing building energy codes “apply primarily to new construction and major renovations, which is great. But most buildings already exist, right?” said Amanda Webb, an assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Cincinnati, which was the lead recipient of an earlier $2.9 million grant focused on developing technical guidance for the voluntary standards.

Work under both Department of Energy grants focuses on “coming up with a way to help really deliver the benefits of energy efficiency to existing buildings at scale,” Webb said.

The standards will differ from more general guidelines such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program, which largely emphasize new construction and a broader range of sustainability measures than energy use and emissions. 

Cities will use the technical guidance from the work by Webb’s group and results from outreach to develop standards, rather than codes. The difference is codes are mandatory, with penalties for violations, whereas standards are not.

“The approach that we’re taking with this is definitely much more of a carrot approach” than a stick, said Robert McCracken, who heads up energy management for the Office of Environment & Sustainability in Cincinnati, which is the lead partner on the project.

The reasons are largely legal, as well as political. Over the past decade, leadership in the Ohio General Assembly has generally opposed imposing requirements to cut pollution, and a bill for utilities to provide voluntary energy efficiency programs still has not passed.

As a legal matter, cities generally can’t adopt building codes stricter than those established by the Ohio Board of Building Standards. However, the board doesn’t have authority to set requirements for benchmarking emissions or performance standards for existing buildings. The cities’ grant application said the board confirmed that a delegation of authority won’t be needed, as long as they don’t adopt new construction codes.

Energy efficiency provides its own incentives for building owners, because “it saves money,” said Oliver Kroner, who heads up Cincinnati’s Office of Environment & Sustainability. “People are generally aligned with the [city’s] climate commitments. But there’s sometimes the gap with what you want to do and how to get there.”

Lower costs for building owners can also let them charge lower rents, which can attract tenants. “We frequently receive inquiries from companies who are considering relocating, and they’re interested in the climate effort here,” Kroner said.

Ziegler said many of their organization’s 50 local government members also have shown interest in getting help for cutting building emissions. The independent hub to be set up under the new grant will really help building owners with the “nuts and bolts” for meeting their city’s building performance standards, they said.

Columbus is the only one of the four cities with a benchmarking policy right now, and the plan calls for the others to adopt their own versions as well. Benchmarking will be key for letting the cities track progress in reducing energy use. Based on existing commercial building stock in each city, the team members estimate cutting energy use 45% by 2050, the grant application materials said.

Beck said the Columbus benchmarking program has “been very successful,” noting the city has worked with building owners to help them comply. Audits done as part of the process have also identified “low hanging fruit” for adding energy efficiency through LED lighting, thermostat adjustments and so on, she noted.

Equity issues

Equity concerns also factor into the choice of standards versus codes. Businesses in historically disinvested communities already face a variety of financial and other challenges. 

“We want this to be a benefit rather than yet another burden that’s imposed on them,” Ziegler said.

Webb’s team is also exploring how building performance standards could be tailored up front to address concerns about affordability. Possibilities could include a metric to reflect greater equity needs or measures to ensure tenants as well as owners benefit from savings.

“We have other grants that are focused on workforce development,” Kroner said, adding his hope that many people from underserved communities will be able to work in jobs to help buildings meet building performance standards once they’re adopted.

As work by Webb’s group continues, the four cities and others will gear up for outreach efforts and other work so they’re ready to adopt standards. “There’s going to be a lot of education and outreach in the beginning,” McCracken said.

Ohio cities to collaborate on voluntary program to help commercial buildings cut emissions is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This article was originally published by the Michigan Advance.

More than a year after 5 Lakes Energy released a report detailing more than $7.8 billion in federal investments available to fuel Michigan’s transition to clean energy, the consulting firm is taking stock of the state’s energy economy following the passage of multiple laws based on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate plan. 

In November, the Democratic-led Michigan Legislature voted through a host of policies including goals for transitioning the state to 100% clean energy by 2040 and increasing the state’s energy waster reduction standards and efforts intended to streamline the permitting process by allowing the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to approve large scale renewable energy projects provided they meet state requirements.

“The future of our energy sector — and a significant part of our economy — lies in clean energy. This report highlights how investments in clean energy fuels robust job growth across the U.S. energy sector, with Michigan playing a key role,” state Sen. Sue Shink (D-Northfield Twp.) said in a statement. 

“Our historic Clean Energy Future legislation has positioned Michigan as a national leader in the fight against climate change, reducing household utility cost and safeguarding our air, water and public health, while creating good-paying jobs for people. This report proves that prioritizing clean energy isn’t just good for the environment — it’s also a powerful boost for our economy and American workers,” said Shink, who was a lead sponsor of one of the bills in the clean energy package. 

By examining the interactions between the Inflation Reduction Act and Michigan’s suite of clean energy legislation, the report estimates Michigan families will save an average of $297 a year on their energy bill by 2030 and $713 a year by 2040 compared to if these policies were not enacted, saving Michiganders more than was predicted in the previous report. 

Additionally, Michigan will bring in $15.6 billion in investments from the Inflation Reduction Act by 2030 and $30.7 billion by 2040. The state will also shrink its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% over the next six years, down 88% by 2040.

Michigan is also projected to save $7.3 billion by 2030 in avoided public health costs — such as deaths, hospitalizations and lost school and work days — with savings across the state totaling $27.8 billion by 2040. 

The report also broke down the economic impact of these policies on a more local level, breaking the state into 10 regions and examining the projected growth of jobs and the gross domestic product of those regions. 

Alongside breaking down the economic impacts by region, the report also polled and interviewed 20 members of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, a trade organization focused on supporting innovative energy technology. 

In the survey, 75% of companies indicated they were hiring or understaffed, with 90% indicating they would need to hire or they would be understaffed in the next three years. 

To further support Michigan’s clean energy, the report shares policy recommendations including additional state policies advancing the growth of clean energy and decarbonizing the state’s building and transportation sectors in line with Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, continued investment into clean energy projects and monitoring and evaluation to ensure energy goals are met. 

The report also advises lawmakers to enact a new policy on conducting cumulative impact assessments to determine the effects of retiring existing energy assets and building new projects, to ensure communities of color and low income communities and communities with a history of disinvestment can reap the benefits of clean energy. 

Additionally, it recommends taking steps to reduce the amount households spend on their energy bills by ensuring that cost reductions for energy utilities translate into savings for customers.  

In its final recommendation the report calls on the state to develop workforce training programs in support of the clean energy sector, placing a focus on ensuring opportunities for those transitioning away from traditional energy industries like those based in fossil fuels.

Clean energy laws and funding fuel Michigan jobs and economic growth, new study says is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.