Untitled Document

Letter to the Editor of Presque Isle Advance

As I see it, Wolverine wants to do whatever they want regarding fuel for its plant. Can't really blame them for that. But, for them or their supporters to accuse others of conflicts of interest, is ludicrous!

From Lansing to our county building, it's apparent Wolverine doesn't want Co-op members to know that each customer household will be paying thousands of dollars, over and above metered rates, for construction of the power plant at Rogers City. Residents of Rogers City, served by Consumers Energy, will not!

In the Executive Summary of Michigan's 21st Century Electric Energy Plan dated January, 2007, as a mere footnote, it's revealed that: "Wolverine Power Cooperative, Inc. (Wolverine) has recently begun to develop a new baseload power plant in Rogers City. Wolverine's member cooperatives, however, have non-bypassable charges on their distribution tariffs to fund the plant's development." Why haven't the cooperatives revealed this to members? PIE&G members should ask about this at the October annual meeting. (Google: "21st Century Electric Energy Plan - MI" and key the Executive Summary. See the last paragraph of actual page 15 and the top of 16 plus the footnote at the bottom.)

At the February 21, 2007 meeting in Lansing of the House Energy and Technology Committee with all 19 members in attendance, presentations were made by Mike Peters of MECA and Eric Baker of Wolverine. While not recorded in the Minutes, the Michigan Manufacturers Association publication quoted Eric Baker soon after, revealing that Wolverine's 200,000 residential customers would pay for the $2-billion plant. That calculates as $10,000 per household, spread over an unspecified number of years. The plant "would generate nearly five times more power than the projected needs.." Inflation has pushed the cost higher while conservation efforts lowered demand and will continue to. (See online: www.mma-net.org/publications/publications.asp?pubissueid=388 and go to issue 7 on page 3 of 4.)

Apparently, there is no need for the plant. This is an effort to get coal plants built so "Big Coal" will be guaranteed customers for their increasingly expensive products far into the future. The local wind farm, if it actually gets built, would provide any extra power necessary.