From: Whipple, Deb (GOV)
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 4:35
PM
Subject: What the governor is talking about today
What the Governor’s Talking about
Today
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wolverine Power Cooperative Air Quality
Permit Application Denied; Ratepayers, Long-Term Jobs
Protected
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and
Environment (DNRE) today denied Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative’s air quality
Permit to Install application for a new 600 megawatt power plant in Rogers City
that would be fueled primarily by petroleum coke and coal. The decision
follows a thorough review of the permit application under state and federal
law.
The state’s decision is based on findings
of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which said the company failed
to demonstrate the plant was needed to meet future supply needs. The MPSC
staff also determined that building the proposed plant would increase
electricity rates paid by average residential customers to 20.7 cents per
kilowatt-hour. The 59.2 percent rate increase would cost the average
residential customer $76.95 more each month. Only Hawaii has a higher
average kilowatt-hour rate.
Last year, the governor asked energy
experts at the MPSC to analyze whether there was a need for the proposed
Wolverine facility and if there were alternative methods of meeting their
customer demand. The governor also asked the DNRE to consider the MPSC
analysis as part of its air permit review process, consistent with the
department’s duties under state and federal law.
Details of the
review and decision along with a copy of the denial letter and the MPSC analysis
can be viewed at www.deq.state.mi.us/aps/cwerp.shtml
Key Messages:
• We are protecting hundreds of thousands of
Michigan homeowners, businesses and farmers from paying a whopping increase in
their electric bills which would have been among the highest in the
nation.
• The cost of doing business in Michigan
would have skyrocketed with this power plant, and despite the short-term gain
from its construction, this project would have been a job-killer and a roadblock
in our efforts to bring new economic development investments to the
state.
• In addition to protecting ratepayers from
being gouged with higher electric bills, this decision protects Michigan’s
environment from the pollution that an unnecessary power plant fueled primarily
by petroleum coke and coal would have produced.
Governor Says Public School Employee
Retirement Reforms Will Aid K-12 Funding in Long Term
In her weekly radio address, the governor today
said that the public school employee retirement reforms she signed into law May
19 will help K-12 education over the long term to be funded at the level needed
for Michigan children to succeed in a global economy.
“We’ve
had difficulty in adequately funding K-12 schools in Michigan partly because of
a structural deficit in the state School Aid Fund,” the governor said.
“Back in January, I proposed 29 reforms to Michigan government that included
changes to pension and health care benefits for public school employees.
These pension and health care reforms would help to resolve the structural
deficit in the School Aid Fund, and they were included in my state budget
recommendation that I presented to the legislature in
February.”
“For school districts, the retirement costs for new
school employees who are hired on or after July 1 this year will be less,” the
governor said. “That’s because these employees will be placed into a new,
lower-cost retirement plan that’s a combination of both a defined benefit and a
defined contribution plan. Also beginning July 1, all employees who are
members of the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System will
contribute 3 percent of their pay to an irrevocable health care
trust.”
Key Messages:
•
Together, reforms to the public school employees retirement system will save
school districts nearly $680 million in the next school year. Over the
next 10 years, the savings will grow to more than $3 billion.
• In the short term, the money saved by these
reforms, combined with favorable revenue projections for the School Aid Fund,
means that we will not have to cut K-12 funding in the upcoming fiscal
year.
• Over the long term, these reforms will help
us fund education at the level needed for our children to succeed in a global
economy.
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