Welcome to the weekly newsletter of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council (Michigan EIBC), the business voice for advanced energy in Michigan. Here’s what’s new this week:

 

Anti-Siting Law Ballot Initiative Fails to Advance

An attempt to overturn Michigan’s new law for siting large-scale clean energy projects will not be on the 2024 ballot after opponents of the law failed to obtain enough signatures by the deadline this week.

Michigan EIBC and other groups had publicly opposed this attempted ballot initiative, arguing that overturning the law would ultimately harm farmers and communities by making it harder to get local approval for projects that have a proven record of delivering jobs and tax revenue to communities and helping keep agricultural land from being sold.

Citizens for Local Choice, the group behind the initiative, said this week it didn’t obtain enough signatures and that it would continue to collect signatures through its 180-day window in an effort to get the initiative on the 2026 ballot.

Michigan EIBC President Laura Sherman spoke to several media sources about the failure of the proposed initiative. “Michigan EIBC is glad that farmers across Michigan can now use their land as they want, allowing family farms to stay with Michigan families,” she told Gongwer. “Clean energy projects will continue to support Michigan communities and farmers, creating jobs for years to come.”

The underlying siting law “will help avoid higher energy costs for the average Michigan household while creating jobs and making our economy more competitive,” she said to Planet Detroit.

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Successful Legislative Reception Held on Mackinac Island

On May 29, during the Mackinac Policy Conference, Michigan EIBC held a networking reception at the Seabiscuit Cafe on Mackinac Island. Thank you to all who attended!

Thank you to the reception’s sponsors:

megajoule

 

kilojoule

joule

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White House Announces More Steps for Expanding Capital for Clean Energy for Medium and Small Businesses

This week the Biden administration announced new efforts to expand access to capital for medium- and small-sized businesses to fund clean energy-related projects.

The announcements were made at a “Climate Capital Convening” held at the White House featuring National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and Small Business Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman.

First, the Small Business Administration will expand its cap on the number of loans it can issue to small businesses under its 504 Loan Program for “energy public policy projects,” such as energy efficiency-enhancing retrofits or the addition of solar panels. “In lifting this cap, small businesses may now bundle multiple 504 loans to finance projects that leverage clean energy technologies to lower production costs, improve energy efficiency, and contribute to emissions reductions goals,” according to a statement from the White House.

Second, the White House released the Climate Capital Guidebook, described as “a simple, one-stop-shop map of capital programs available across the federal government to climate-related start-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses, and their investors.” The guidebook compiles the large assortment of funding opportunities created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act into one place for easy reference.

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Michigan Energy News

• Bridge Michigan analyzes county-level data on electric reliability and finds that among residents of the most populous counties in the country, Michiganders are more likely to experience outages of 8 hours or longer.
• Consumers Energy breaks ground on a combination solar and biodigester project near Battle Creek.
• Sierra Club, Vote Solar, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ecology Center and other groups call the anti-siting law ballot initiative “misguided” and say the siting law will “streamline the permitting process to prevent local governments from trampling farmers’ property rights.”
• Over 100 electric school buses are going to 27 school districts across the state.

National Energy News

• The U.S. Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service propose guidance for the Inflation Reduction Act’s 48E and 45Y clean electricity credits.
• In a new interview Sunrun CEO Mary Powell discusses how the “slow and no” culture of utilities has stood in the way of innovation but how that has changing with developments like virtual power plants.
• An increase in storage interconnection requests by over 500 GW since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has created an urgent need for a solution to interconnection slowdowns.
• The White House affirms commitment to helping build more nuclear reactors, both large and small.

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Job Board

Attention Michigan EIBC members: if you have a job announcement you would like in the newsletter, please send a paragraph describing the position and a link to apply to Matt Bandyk at matt@mieibc.org. Please include in the email a specific end date for the job posting.

Elevate

Vice President (VP), Program Support & Engagement. Location: Remote.

The Vice President (VP), Program Support & Engagement, oversees program support operations, marketing, and the adoption of Elevate’s strategic priorities for Diversity, Racial Equity and Inclusion within programs we implement. The role is responsible for leading these teams in successfully meeting their goals and objectives, including ensuring teams are within budget and management is efficient and consistent across areas; the role also ensures that all teams have sufficient resources and structure to meet the program goals they support. The VP, Support Systems is part of Elevate’s senior leadership team and oversees all facets of program support, marketing, and DREI initiatives while leading strategic planning, relationship management, and continuous improvement. This position requires program administration knowledge, people management expertise, flexibility, relationship management with key partners, and the ability to manage time effectively between a diverse set of tasks and teams.

Diversity, Racial Equity, and Inclusion Lead. Location: Chicago.
The Diversity, Racial Equity, and Inclusion (DREI) Lead is responsible for the development and implementation (integration) of initiatives that promote diversity, racial equity, and inclusion (DREI) aligning with Elevate’s core vision, mission, values, and goals. The DREI Lead will work closely with the DREI support team and others, as needed, to ensure integration of DREI principles throughout Elevate programs, processes and practices, execute on strategic priorities, and drive successful outcomes. This Lead will serve as the subject matter expert on DREI and provide vision, expertise, and counsel on matters of diversity initiatives, strategic planning, education and research, and program implementation.

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Michigan and National Energy Events

Registration is open for the Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC) 2024 Annual Conference on June 9-12 in Minneapolis.

Join Michigan EIBC trade organization member Ceres, Emerson Collective, Elemental Excelerator, Climate Power and E2 in Detroit on June 10 for the Clean Economy and Community Impact Summit. Special guests include Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. RSVP here.

The 68th Annual Michigan Energy Providers Conference will be held at the Grand Traverse Resort July 25-26. Register here.

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Opportunities

Consumers Energy has released an RFP for competitive bids from participants in the MISO Energy Market in accordance with the Company’s expansion of the Voluntary Green Pricing Program in its Renewable Energy Plan. A prelaunch stakeholder meeting is scheduled for June 3.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has created a website tracking its progress implementing Public Acts 229, 231, 233, 234, and 235, passed on Nov. 8, 2023 and signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Nov. 28.

The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a funding opportunity announcement for grants to “fund research, development, and prototype or pilot scale technology validation and demonstration activities that will accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable technologies that increase efficiency and eliminate industrial GHG emissions for the most energy- and emissions- intensive industrial subsectors.” The deadline is June 11. Learn more here,

Michigan EGLE is launching the Renewables Ready Communities Award (RRCA), which makes Michigan municipalities that have, on or after October 1, 2023, begun physically hosting and performing local permitting for any portion of an eligible renewable energy project eligible for awards of $5,000 per MW. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until Sept. 30. More information on this opportunity can be found on the RRCA Webpage.

Michigan EGLE is offering at least $320,000 in funding MI Solar Communities-MI Solar Access Program. Applications will be accepted through March 31, 2025, or when funding is expended, whichever comes first. Find the request for proposals for MI Solar Access here.