8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AROUND TOWN A2P2 phase two public power progress The power is out again where I live. This happens many times throughout the year. Around town, for the last few months, a few signs have caught my attention. “Ann Arbor for Public Power” is brightly displayed upon them with a few notes about the current status of energy use in Ann Arbor. I investigated the organization (A2P2) and found it to be very enlightening. There is a struggle between corporate profits and renewable energy implementation in Michigan. There are consistent major power outages in our region and many corporate-owned power grids fall below municipal-owned power plants’ reliability averages. Currently, Ann Arbor is served by Detroit Edison (DTE), a corporate entity (although state-regulated) pursuing profits for investors instead of reliable renewable energy. A2P2 is advocating for a public-owned democratically-governed electric utility system called a Municipal Energy Utility or MEU, an idea that may be new to Ann Arbor but is the way many Michigan cities get their energy, including Lansing and Chelsea. One of the first things A2P2 did was to ask the City to conduct a phase one study to investigate municipal ownership. Ann Arbor complied, and the results came out in September 2023. One of that study’s recommendations was that the City ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor pursue a phase two study to support the MEU, intended to find out what it would cost to take over the local energy assets from DTE. A2P2, of course, strongly supported that second study but whether the City would approve it was uncertain. But A2P2 people were pleased when, on February 21, Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor threw his support behind the study. As Mayor Taylor said at the time, “(A)n MEU … continues to intrigue, a chance to ensure that the utility is there for the people ... no shareholders or dividends, or campaign contributions. A utility run for the public good. To that end staff have identified the steps needed for us to continue to explore the cost and practicality of an MEU, and I support those steps.” Since that time, a line item for the study has appeared in the not-yetapproved budget. APRIL 5, 2024 I spoke to Greg Woodring, President of A2P2, about local benefits and the next steps for municipal power. He stated, “Public power utilities consistently outperform private utilities in terms of cost and reliability, because they are directly accountable to their customers, not shareholders.” There is a larger three-eyed fish to fry here. Power reliability is one thing, but protecting the environment is more important. Steps taken in green energy see A2P2 page 15
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