Wolverine Power Supply Files Alternative Analysis for proposed Coal Plants
Comments Are Due July 09, 2009

There is no need for new coal in our foreseeable future and that efficiency measures can meet our energy demands for decades, save our citizens’ precious energy dollars in these very difficult times, and create tens of thousands of new, green jobs to stimulate immediate and long-term economic health across Michigan.  We need you to comment on it to the PSC and DEQ on Wolverine Power Supply.  TAKE ACTION!

EMAIL: Wolverine Power Supply - Reference Case No. U-16000, should be consistent with provisions of Order in Case No. U-15958, and must be received by 5 p.m. on July 9. All information submitted to the Commission in this matter will become public information, available on the Commissions Web site, and subject to disclosure. Comments may be e-mailed to mpscedockets@michigan.gov | VIEW SAMPLE LETTER

FORM: Click here to use our convenient comment form.

LETTER: Written comments should be mailed to the Executive Secretary, Michigan Public Service Commission, P.O. Box 30221, Lansing, MI 48909. All comments should reference Case No. U-15958, should be consistent with provisions of Order in Case No. 15958, and must be received by 5 p.m. on July 5, 2009. All information submitted to the Commission in this matter will become public information, available on the Commission's Web site, and subject to disclosure. | VIEW SAMPLE LETTER

TELEPHONE: Contact: Judy Palnau (517) 241-3323. Comments are due by July 5, 2009

The Air Quality Impact Comment Period has ended
We will take water quality impact statements as soon as the DEQ is ready to accept them. Thank you for the hundreds of letters to the DEQ you have submitted to date.

• For official Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announcements & times click here

• Notice of Comment Period and Public Hearing click here pdfs

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News and Letters

Wolverine Bets Its Ash on Lake Huron
Perhaps the biggest unknown in Wolverine Power Cooperative’s Rogers City coal plant proposal is how the firm will dispose of toxic coal and petroleum-coke fly ash, on site, without poisoning the waters of nearby Lake Huron. Coal fly ash is laden with mercury, among other heavy metals. Pet coke ash has no mercury, but its list of toxic heavy metals is longer, and they show up in larger amounts. But there are few details on how Wolverine will contain the ash with cancer-causing contaminants in a land fill in either its Presque Isle County special use permit or in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s draft Permit to Install, the subject of last Tuesday’s final agency hearing in Lansing. When coal ash gets wet, it forms a thick, dangerous sludge like the one that ruined the Tennessee River near Knoxville a few weeks ago. When coal ash gets wet, it forms a thick, dangerous sludge like the one that ruined the Tennessee River near Knoxville a few weeks ago. That bothered former county planning commissioner Tom Harkleroad when he questioned Wolverine closely about the landfill during his panel’s consideration of the plant in 2006. Mr. Harkleroad noticed that the landfill was originally proposed for an elevation below Lake Huron’s water line, even though lake water continually leaks into the quarry. “I’d never heard of a landfill below the lake level, right next to the lake,” Mr. Harkleroad told the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. “How do you put that fly ash, with all that mercury and heavy metals, down in that hole below the lake level? They are pumping water out of (that) hole constantly. How are you doing that without putting that mercury and heavy metals back out into the water?” “They wouldn’t answer the questions,” Mr. Harkleroad said of Wolverine.