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.”
 
To listen to the radio address, click on the following link:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/Gov250Full_321898_7.mp3
 
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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