Viewing Grant Proposal: 5 Lakes Energy and Partners Infrastructure Development Planning

I’m in support of this document.

I’m in support of this document.

Please consider this letter one of strong support for Five Lakes Energy’s application for the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) Low Carbon Infrastructure Enhancement and Development grant application in partnership with Elevate, Michigan Energy Options, and Slipstream. SEEDS Ecology & Education Centers will support and participate in the community engagement planning and implementation with key stakeholders. SEEDS has served as a clean energy technical assistance provider to municipalities including the City of Traverse City for well over a decade. We have served the City as a facilitator for its Green Team since the City Commission adopted a resolution in 2016 to achieve carbon neutral operations by mid-century. The City successfully achieved its first interim goal of 100% clean electricity for City controlled meters by its target date of 2020 and its Commission is currently pursuing the adoption of carbon-informed facility construction and management policies that go beyond code, including building electrification guidelines. This project would add value to current municipal activities, current municipal electric utility planning, and provide substantive support for community members to follow suit. We support the roles of the project that provide outreach, education, and community specific input to build new economic and health benefits models that enable and empower local governments, smaller utilities, and other stakeholders to participate for energy democracy and justice, for local ownership, and buy-in. This effort will be an inspiration in building trust in the community, providing leadership, and elevating local electrification programs.

We are very interested in natural gas in our area or house

As a resident of Traverse City, a customer of Traverse City Light and Power, and an elected county commissioner representing part of Traverse City, I support the application of 5 Lakes Energy and Partners to launch and evaluate beneficial electrification project(s) in Traverse City. I particularly appreciate the emphasis upon the development of methods and best practices to evaluate the impacts of electrification programs that reduce energy burden and carbon emissions associated with increasing our stock of affordable housing. While the City of Traverse City has been a trail-blazer in setting climate and clean energy goals, there remain substantial barriers in the northwestern region to robust adoption of measures to reduce fossil fuel usage. These include real or perceived concerns about cost-effectiveness and efficacy of fuel switching, increasing reliance on electric vehicles, and building electrification. I support this application and its effort to work with the City and TCLP to build new economic and health benefits models that may benefit city residents and enable other units of government and communities to adopt fossil-fuel-reducing programs.

• Natural gas utilities already have every ability to expand natural gas lines to the rural parts of Michigan. Neither Consumers Energy nor DTE Gas need to utilize taxpayer funds through the Low Carbon EIED grant program to expand natural gas as proposed in these seven projects. Both Consumers Energy and DTE report hundreds of millions of dollars in profits annually, and both utilities have more than enough resources to expand natural gas lines without taxpayer funded grants. Instead, the MPGA would argue that these grants should go to benefit local units of government with projects that benefit large communities.

I am not in support of this proposal and it does not achieve the goal of carbon reduction.

We are in support of this project. The City of Ann Arbor worked on a submittal but the methodologies requested are not ones that non-utility partners are familiar with. This prevented us from submitting a strong proposal which is why the kind of support highlighted in this proposal is critical.

I am in support of this document

I support this proposal from 5 Lakes Energy. Prioritization of low carbon energy infrastructure and rapid gains in GHG reductions through the development of resources supporting local governments and similar not-for-profit entities undertaking this work is critical and urgent if we are to reach carbon neutrality state-wide by 2050.