LANSING – Increasing Michigan’s portfolio standard is the goal of a constitutional amendment submitted this week with the Department of State. A group calling itself Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs is backing adoption by voters of a 25 percent RPS standard by 2025, meaning utilities would have to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources.
The group represents labor, agriculture, business and public health organizations, said spokesperson Mark Fisk.
Michigan lawmakers passed a 10 percent RPS standard for electric utilities to achieve by 2015, but several of these groups and Democratic lawmakers have continued to press for a higher standard.
Increasing the standard now will provide more jobs that can’t be outsourced, Fisk said, as well as improve the health of the environment.
Fisk said the proposal will also include a cap of 1 percent each year on what utilities can charge customers for getting their power from renewable sources and also includes worker incentives. It does not speak to putting wind turbines in the Great Lakes, but says the sources of renewable power would be wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric.
Asked if any group has committed to paying for paid petition signature-gatherers, Fisk said, “We’ve just started fundraising on it. We’re just getting the petition approved at this point.”
The Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to meet next week to determine whether the petition language is clear enough for the group to begin collecting signatures.
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