Michigan Energy Policy Will Raise Utility Bills, Bring Blackouts

Midland, Mich. — Michigan is the latest state to embrace the self-destructive idea that it can completely wean itself from traditional energy sources. On Tuesday, November 28, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two laws that all but ensure that the state will replace its reliable sources of electricity production with unreliable ones such as wind and solar. The result, according to a new Mackinac Center analysis, will be skyrocketing utility bills and days-long blackouts in the depths of winter.

Under the first law, Michigan must meet a 100 percent “clean energy” mandate by 2040, easily one of the most aggressive targets in the nation. As a stepping stone, the state must come to produce 60 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2035, just twelve years from now. That’s a four-fold increase from its current use of those sources for 15 percent of its energy needs, which took decades and countless dollars and taxpayer subsidies to achieve.

Midland, Mich. — Michigan is the latest state to embrace the self-destructive idea that it can completely wean itself from traditional energy sources. On Tuesday, November 28, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two laws that all but ensure that the state will replace its reliable sources of electricity production with unreliable ones such as wind and solar. The result, according to a new Mackinac Center analysis, will be skyrocketing utility bills and days-long blackouts in the depths of winter.

Under the first law, Michigan must meet a 100 percent “clean energy” mandate by 2040, easily one of the most aggressive targets in the nation. As a stepping stone, the state must come to produce 60 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2035, just twelve years from now. That’s a four-fold increase from its current use of those sources for 15 percent of its energy needs, which took decades and countless dollars and taxpayer subsidies to achieve.