January, 2009
Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm, creates the Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council (GLOW) as an advisory body within the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth. The council consists of key state agency representatives and stakeholders as appointed by the Governor. Its purpose is to examine issues and make recommendations related to offshore wind development in Michigan. It’s understood that recommendations should be such as to encourage offshore wind development. The creation of GLOW goes largely unnoticed by the public.
September. 2009
GLOW issues its report to Governor Granholm. According to the report, 20 percent of the 38,000 square miles of state-owned Great Lakes bottomlands, or 7,874 square miles, has a depth of 30 meters or less, which is practicable for offshore wind development. Within this area, 537 square miles are considered to be most favorable to the sustainable development of offshore wind energy. The council’s report also recommends a package of legislative and rule changes to help guide the development of offshore wind energy going forward. Recommended changes would facilitate the permitting, leasing, construction, and monitoring of offshore wind projects while protecting natural resources. This report goes largely unnoticed by the public.
October, 2009
Governor Granholm extends GLOW Council through December, 2009. It is charged with several new tasks including identifying the most favorable areas to lease for offshore wind development and providing further input on Great Lakes wind development legislation and rulemaking. Draft legislation will eventually follow from this process.
December, 2009
Scandia Wind Offshore meets with County Commissioners to propose the Aegir Project, a 100 square mile wind farm for Lake Michigan waters off Mason and Oceana Counties. County Commissioners advise Scandia to hold public meetings. Public meetings, in turn, bring forth vocal opposition from local residents. Concerns expressed include: harm to tourist and summer resident industries with loss of jobs; damage to many aspects of the environment; loss to property values with consequent loss of property tax revenue; and more.
Scandia’s proposed wind farm would be the largest in the world by a factor of four. Despite this Scandia apparently decided not to discuss its proposal with the GLOW Counsel before going public. Skip Pruss, Chairman of GLOW, will later characterize Scandia’s proposal as being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Many Mason and Ocean County residents are now alarmed. For them Lake Michigan is a resource unique to the world and one to be treasured. Scandia might as well have proposed its wind factory for the rim of the Grand Canyon.
January, 2010
Community opposition to Scandia’s proposed wind factory finds organization in the form of Lake Michigan POWER Coalition. POWER’s mission includes community organizing, lobbying, research, public relations, and advertising. Skandia holds additional community meetings. Using the media effectively, POWER responds on behalf of its members and others in the community.
State Rep. Goeff Hansem introduces a bill calling for a moratorium on offshore wind development.
February, 2010
The Village of Pentwater, Pentwater Township, and Consumers Power all give a thumbs-down to offshore wind power. Consumers Power sites the danger of ice flows to offshore wind turbines in its decision to locate its wind farm on land.
GLOW issues its final report including offshore wind draft legislation. According to Lake Michigan POWER Coalition, this draft legislation is deficient in several respects:
1. Setback requirements are not set by law. Leaving requirements relating to how far wind turbines must be from shore (or from a state or national park) to the DNRE fails to provide the public the protection it deserves.
2. Criteria relating to several important factors are not included in the legislation. These factors include wind factory parcel selection; size and shape of parcels; and measurement of benefits and adverse impacts. This failure leaves these decisions vulnerable to a political process in which the public will lose.
3. Most favorable, conditional, and exclusion areas are not set by law. Instead, draft legislation gives the DNRE control over this. Given the importance of these designations, and given the public interest in this matter, the legislature in public debate, not the DNRE behind closed doors, should identify which great lakes areas are subject to possible offshore wind development.
4. The public is given no right to legally challenge DNRE decisions. As the draft legislation stands only the DNRE can legally challenge the DNRE. This makes no sense and there must be some rein on the DNRE’s power.
5. Affected communities are not given any role in the decision-making process. Draft legislation provides only for an informational meeting with no requirement that public feedback be taken into account. This is grossly unfair to those most affected.
6. By law, only proven experience and technology should be permitted in the great lakes. It is dangerous to our great lakes environment to permit technology which is unproven under conditions comparable to those found in the great lakes. It is also dangerous to authorize a developer who has not successfully completed a project comparable to that being proposed.
March, 2010
Scandia revises its original wind factory proposal by cutting it in half. The revised Aegir Project is 500 megawatts with a footprint covering 50 square miles of Lake Michigan. In presenting the revised proposal to Mason and Oceana County Commissioners, Scandia offers to pay $1 million per annum. This amount is only a fraction of what these counties are likely to lose in property tax revenue should the project move forward
At the same time Scandia extends from March 31 to September 1 its outside date for gaining local (county) support. Earlier Scandia had said it would look elsewhere if it did not have an indication of local support by the end of the first quarter. Most in the community wish Scandia had been true to its word.
Scandia announces plans to build a separate 500 megawatt, 50 square mile wind factory in Lake Michigan waters off Grand Haven, spanning parts of Muskegon and Ottawa Counties. It also proposes building a 150-megawatt onshore wind energy farm at the Muskegon wastewater treatment plant site. Scandia asks that counties indicate support for its proposal by September 1.
With Scandia's plan to expand south, Lake Michigan POWER Coalition prepares to expand its efforts from one with a local focus to a state-wide effort including a focus on wind power legislation. Governor Granholm has already sent this legislation to the Michigan Legislature.