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Upper Peninsula lawmakers, utilities and employers urge legislative fix to protect RICE generation and avoid sharp rate increases
Summary
Lawmakers, utilities and mining and labor representatives told the Michigan House Committee on Energy that House Bills 4007 and 4283 are needed to prevent the early retirement of 13 RICE generators in the Upper Peninsula and avoid steep electricity surcharges for residents and industry.
Lawmakers and stakeholders from Michigan nd the Upper Peninsula told the House Committee on Energy on March 4 that new clean-energy requirements would force the early retirement of recently built reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) generators and could impose millions in new costs on UP residents and businesses.
Representatives sponsoring the bills described House Bill 4007 as legislation to ensure the 13 RICE units in the Upper Peninsula can remain online through their designed life and to allow the engines to be used to comply with renewable-energy requirements. The sponsors said the units were installed after coal-fired plants closed between 2013 and 2019 and were intended to provide locally dispatched, reliable capacity sized for regional demand.
Valerie Bridal, who said she led Michigan—nergy policy in the Snyder administration and now practices as an energy attorney and consultant, told the committee that RICE engines were chosen after studying alternatives because they are right-sized, faster to deploy, dispersed geographically for…
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