Michigan just passed a 100% clean electricity by 2040 law

Michigan has become the 12th state to pass landmark legislation that sets a 100% clean electricity deadline for utilities.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) today signed the Clean Energy Future Plan into law. It requires Michigan utilities to source 15% of electricity from clean energy sources such as wind or solar through 2029. That requirement will then increase to 50% by 2030, 60% by 2035, and 100% by 2040.

The new law includes the increase of utility energy efficiency requirements and ensures that the state’s utility regulator considers climate, affordability, and equity in utilities’ long-term energy plans.

It also sets an energy storage standard of 2.5 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 – making it the first Midwestern state to do so – and raises caps on distributed energy sources such as rooftop solar.

The package ensures that workers are included in the state’s transition to a clean energy economy and reduces barriers to building out large-scale renewable projects.

Peder Mewis, regional policy director at the Clean Grid Alliance, said earlier in November, “Siting and permitting has been the largest roadblock to deploying renewable projects in Michigan, and the reforms in this package will ensure a predictable and stable permitting environment that will unlock billions in economic development across the state for decades to come.”

Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer at the Michigan Environmental Council, said in a statement today:

Fifty years ago, the extent of coal and oil’s threats were just being realized. Twenty years ago, coal plants were still being proposed in-state. Now, a 100% clean energy future is in sight.

And Governor Whitmer said before signing the bill into law:

We will make American energy with American workers earning family-sustaining wages.

Electrek’s Take

Michigan is currently the No. 3 state in the US for clean energy investments, with $21.3 billion of investments and 16,699 jobs secured since the passage of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022. 

But the state still has a lot of work to do: Renewables provided just 12% of Michigan’s electricity net generation in 2022, and wind accounted for about two-thirds of that power. It ranks for carbon emissions among US states, so this is a law worth celebrating.

Read more: Michigan is building a trailblazing electric truck stop with Daimler, DTE

Photo: By No Trams To Lime Street from METRO DETROIT – Wind Turbines near Ubly, CC BY-SA 2.0

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