A Picture Worth a Thousand Megawatts

By: Chris Johnson

Last month, the governor of the great state of Michigan was the subject of one of the most memorable photographs to come out of the oval office under this president: Gretchen Whitmer in President Trump’s office shielding her face from the camera with a file folder, like a child hiding under a blanket.

Whitmer apparently did not want to be seen working with the arch-villain of her supporters, the “45” apparently referenced in the cryptic ornament which can be seen on her desk in yet another awkward appearance before the camera lens which reads “86/45” – “86ing” something meaning to remove an item from service, by one interpretation, or to bury it by another and Trump being the 45th president.

Yet, Whitmer’s reason for being in the Oval Office that day received much less attention than her awkward photo, although it was likely the reason for her extreme embarrassment.

Whitmer’s selling point when she convinced the people of Michigan to vote for her was to focus on repairing our state’s aging infrastructure, particularly to “fix the d*** roads,” as you may remember.

Yet, as per my last road trip, crossing the state line into Michigan is still a jarring experience, if you catch my meaning. As MLive puts it, “Fast forward to late 2024, Michigan’s d*** roads still aren’t fixed to national standards and they’re not on pace to meet that 90% good-and-fair-condition target in the next five years.”

It’s fair to say that Gretchen’s attention has been elsewhere. Namely, converting Michigan to 100% “renewable” energy by 2040. To give an idea of how far we are from reaching that goal, only 11% of Michigan’s power was from “green” energy in 2023. So, Michigan has to faze out 89% of our energy production power in the next 15 years while covering the landscape with solar panels and wind turbines.

For example, residents of Gaylord township were unpleasantly surprised recently to find that Michigan DNR had made plans to clear state woodlands near Gaylord to allow a private firm to install 420 acres of solar panels. The company now says they will not use state land, but plans to continue development of a 1,000-acre solar farm on private land. Michigan farmers have also been frustrated as owners of valuable farmland are incentivized to sell to green energy companies rather than other ag-businesses.

Meanwhile, a functioning coal-burning power plant in Ottawa County is scheduled to be taken offline in the weeks ahead and is planned for demolition. Consumer’s Energy confirmed that this closure is part of its push for “clean” energy production.

Also meanwhile, Democrats in power in Michigan and around the country are pushing citizens to convert to electric cars and appliances which will only place a greater load on the electrical grid, not to mention the massive expected demands of Artificial Intelligence.

The Mackinac Center recently shared a report released by the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation which states that, “Most of America and Canada are at elevated risk of blackouts and power outages in the next five to 10 years… The 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment addresses the key problem for the grid: We plan to increase electricity demand while relying on energy sources that are woefully inadequate.”

It continues: “The NERC report explains that despite the attempt to replace coal with solar panels and battery backup, “the performance of these replacement resources is more variable and weather-dependent than the generators they are replacing. As a result, less overall capacity (dispatchable capacity in particular) is being added to the system than what was projected and needed to meet future demand.”

The director of energy and environmental policy at the Mackinac Center, Jason Hayes, put it this way: “There’s no doubt that people would quickly experience increased costs and widespread grid instability as a result of a wind, solar, and battery backup-based electric grid.”

While Whitmer has, in the past, cited low energy costs as one of the goals of her administration’s energy policy – “Michigan is committed to leading the future of clean energy so we can drive down utility costs for families…”  – Michigan ranks 38th out of the 50 states for energy costs, and Consumer’s Energy just last month sought and received permission from the state to raise rates again.

And while we are among the more expensive states for energy costs, Michigan is also a leading state for power outages. In fact, at the beginning of last month, 300,000 Michigan residents found themselves without power in the aftermath of an ice storm and several tornadoes, due to damaged transformers and power lines. Days later, 70,000 still had no power as Michigan weather fluctuated between winter and spring.

While Michigan’s power companies invest billions in transforming our energy sources at the urging of Gretchen Whitmer, residents have been calling for money to be spent on the lines themselves being buried, which would make them far less vulnerable to the many such assaults of nature which Michigan’s powerlines endure.

That brings us to why Whitmer was in at the White House hiding behind a file folder.

Whitmer was in Trump’s office to ask him to issue an emergency declaration on behalf of the northern counties where thousands continued without power for weeks as roads were cleared and lines repaired. This would provide the affected area with millions of dollars of funding for recovery efforts.

Power outage is a sore subject for Gretchen Whitmer as it shines a spotlight on her misplaced priorities, and more so when she has to seek President Trump’s help in dealing with it. But, the longer we continue down Whitmer’s road lined with windmills and solar panels, the more painful a subject it is likely to be for all of us.

To view this article in your browser, Click Here

For more information, articles and newsletters, please check out our website at https://americandecency.org/

You can support ADA financially by visiting: https://give.cornerstone.cc/americandecency

 

---