LANSING ? Michigan House Majority Floor Leader Aric Nesbitt said he’s never shied away from hard work, and is confident he is able to take on a potential re-write of the state’s energy policy combined with his duties as floor leader.

When asked how he plans to balance both leading the House Energy Policy Committee and serve as floor leader, Nesbitt (R-Lawton) simply said “hard work.”

The Energy Policy Committee will likely head some significant changes in the state’s energy law, as many mandates in the current one expire this year. The committee is not small, with 25 members. But Nesbitt was the chair last term and said he is passionate about energy policy.

However, Nesbitt was also elected by his caucus to serve as floor leader, which also is not a small job.

“I grew up on a farm,” he said. “If I was going to take the bus to school in the morning, I would have to wake up at 5:30 to do my morning chores first. Energy has always been a passion of mine and I’ve never shied away from making sure that the priorities of the caucus and good public policy trumps everything else.”

Nesbitt said he is looking forward to working with minority vice chair Rep. Bill LaVoy (D-Monroe) and vice chair Rep. Gary Glenn (R-Midland). He also said he has met with most of the committee members to find out what their priorities are.

Nesbitt also noted the entire Upper Peninsula delegation is serving on the committee this term.

“They have really lived through the last year some of the real effects on energy policy up in the Upper Peninsula and I think they will have some good things to share and insights on the challenges that they have up there,” he said.

On renewable energy mandates, Nesbitt said he is someone who hesitates to pursue such mandates. He said the state should be concerned about making sure there is the capacity to serve ratepayers and consumers in the state.

The current law requires utilities to generate 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by the end of this year. Environmentalists are pushing for that number to go up to 25 or 30 percent. DTE Energy CEO Gerard Anderson recently told Gongwer News Service having a mandate is unnecessary because federal requirements will mean more renewable power.

“If the goal is just a clean energy standard that has to be lower polluting … then just set a clean energy standard, you have to meet these standards no matter what the technology is,” he said. “Well they call it a renewable energy portfolio but it doesn’t include all the renewables … it picks winner and losers in the current one. … Whenever you have to do a mandate like this it tells me it isn’t cost competitive.”

Nesbitt said currently coal isn’t competitive because of plants closing due to not meeting new federal regulations.

“I do have concerns with some of our reserves margins in the future with capacity, especially as we are seeing the closure of these smaller coal plants for not meeting these federal regulations,” he said.

Nesbitt said he wants to see clean energy, but it’s a question of what that looks like. He also said it’s an exciting time for energy production in the United States.

“For North American energy security this is the first time in 60 years we see a pathway to being more secure in energy,” he said, noting the low prices of oil and natural gas.

Nesbitt also said in the current market he thinks it needs to be a regulated setting. Current law limits to 10 percent the portion of the market that can choose a utility other than the incumbent, which generally is either Consumers Energy or DTE Energy. The competitors want to see full deregulation and competition while the incumbent utilities say the law needs to be changed to ensure the competitors are paying market prices for energy.

“In terms of the choice cap, I am somebody who believes they should have made a decision back in ’08 and they probably should have put the genie back in the bottle and re-regulated the market,” he said. “When you have a market where you are required to have 15 percent excess capacity … when you have that in a market, the regulated sector I believe is the way to go.”

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