When Democrats won total control of Michigan government in 2022, they wasted no time in passing a series of clean energy bills, including a new clean energy target, deep reform of the public utility commission, and aggressive acceleration of clean energy permitting. I discuss it all with state senator Sam Singh.
I would have liked to see a little more discussion of how low natural gas costs are for residential heating is in Michigan compared to electricity. Right now we are a little over $8/MCF or about $0.80/therm. With only about $163/year in meter fees and $0.16/kwh electricity, heat pumps are simply more costly to operate than a gas furnace. Only the smallest and/or most efficient homes and apartments can over come it by not having a meter fee. (Consumers Energy numbers) Home heating is unlikely to start electrifying to any significant degree without this changing somehow. Maybe some dual fuel systems sold on comfort...
I put this question to Sam at an HBA conference and he artfully side stepped it. (Yes, there are a lot of households burning propane.) I don’t blame him, it’s a hard one, but it needs to be talked about.
I think it's important to realize what enabled the trifecta. In 2018 Michigan voters took the task of drawing districts away from the legislature and created a bi-partisan commission.
This was very helpful and enjoyable to listen to as I focus on what Virginia can do in its current (very short and quick) General Assembly session. The elephant in the room for us right now is data centers, which are going to eat up all the power we need to meet our clean energy targets. Actually, I’d encourage you to have a future podcast on the dark side of AI (along with crypto and other massive energy users) - it’s going to demand many more massive data centers with huge energy needs.
I was interested to hear the Senator’s comments regarding community solar, social equity provisions, & brief mention about utilizing large parking lots.
Leased commercial properties with big parking lots very often have big loads from AC, refrigeration, food service kitchens, etc., and they need emergency backup power for refrigeration. The problem holding up integrated on-site solar power, storage & BEV charging is that it’s the tenants who are paying the utility bills, not the commercial property owners.
The new California Building Code takes a significant step to correct this structural mismatch by requiring on-site solar in new commercial construction. It’s not clear how soon this will effect existing properties, but at some point, we will probably have to address this like we do disabled accommodations, with remodel building permit applications triggering behind the meter energy improvements.
I can't help but wonder--what happened to Power to the People? Seems like they have taken all the power to look after the environment away from the people and locked it into the fists of unaccountable state-level bureaucrats.
I would have liked to see a little more discussion of how low natural gas costs are for residential heating is in Michigan compared to electricity. Right now we are a little over $8/MCF or about $0.80/therm. With only about $163/year in meter fees and $0.16/kwh electricity, heat pumps are simply more costly to operate than a gas furnace. Only the smallest and/or most efficient homes and apartments can over come it by not having a meter fee. (Consumers Energy numbers) Home heating is unlikely to start electrifying to any significant degree without this changing somehow. Maybe some dual fuel systems sold on comfort...
I put this question to Sam at an HBA conference and he artfully side stepped it. (Yes, there are a lot of households burning propane.) I don’t blame him, it’s a hard one, but it needs to be talked about.
I think it's important to realize what enabled the trifecta. In 2018 Michigan voters took the task of drawing districts away from the legislature and created a bi-partisan commission.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/MiCRC/MISC3/Redistricting_101.pdf?rev=6a8025af10ed436ab647dad865d51b71#:~:text=The%20MICRC%20is%20the%20only,across%20the%20state%20of%20Michigan.
This was very helpful and enjoyable to listen to as I focus on what Virginia can do in its current (very short and quick) General Assembly session. The elephant in the room for us right now is data centers, which are going to eat up all the power we need to meet our clean energy targets. Actually, I’d encourage you to have a future podcast on the dark side of AI (along with crypto and other massive energy users) - it’s going to demand many more massive data centers with huge energy needs.
I was interested to hear the Senator’s comments regarding community solar, social equity provisions, & brief mention about utilizing large parking lots.
Leased commercial properties with big parking lots very often have big loads from AC, refrigeration, food service kitchens, etc., and they need emergency backup power for refrigeration. The problem holding up integrated on-site solar power, storage & BEV charging is that it’s the tenants who are paying the utility bills, not the commercial property owners.
The new California Building Code takes a significant step to correct this structural mismatch by requiring on-site solar in new commercial construction. It’s not clear how soon this will effect existing properties, but at some point, we will probably have to address this like we do disabled accommodations, with remodel building permit applications triggering behind the meter energy improvements.
https://www.energytoolbase.com/newsroom/blog/californias-new-building-energy-efficiency-standards-mandating-solar-storage
I can't help but wonder--what happened to Power to the People? Seems like they have taken all the power to look after the environment away from the people and locked it into the fists of unaccountable state-level bureaucrats.