By declaring an energy emergency, and warning of shortfalls to come this summer, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright ordered the J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive to stay open.
The plant cannot dip below its 2024 energy levels. Left to its devices, Consumers Energy had planned to close it this week, some 15 years ahead of schedule.
“This administration will not sit back,” Wright said in issuing the order, “and allow dangerous energy subtraction policies threaten the resiliency of our grid and raise electricity prices on American families.”
Energy subtraction is another way of saying the word nobody in politics wants to say, which is de-growth.
De-growth is what Attorney General Dana Nessel is after when she suggests the Lower Peninsula should, overnight, unplug from the Line 5 natural gas pipeline.
De-growth is what Michigan lawmakers accounted for when they created a new government office to handle the job-killing fallout from their policies.
And de-growth is what would result if Consumers, energy supplier to North and West Michigan, met its target of using 61% solar and wind energy by 2040.
In 2021, months after Joe Biden took office, Consumers published a clean energy plan. It planned to stop burning coal this year.
If not for a change in leadership in the White House, this plant would have been shut down. This week. And then people would suffer the consequences this summer, losing energy on the hottest days of the year. And then everybody would say, “Oops!”
But elections have consequences. For better and for worse.
Left-wing political leadership in Michigan led Michigan energy companies to abandon their basic duty, which is supplying the energy our lives rely on, in favor of tilting at windmills. Nuclear and coal plants were decommissioned, while solar parks popped up everywhere, including on farmland.
The people of Michigan voted ourselves into this problem in 2018. By the grace of God, the vote for Trump has offered a reprieve. But it could all go away.
If Michigan does not change course in 2026, energy emergencies will be the new normal. Our state plans to run on wind and solar in 15 years. But it’s late May, and I have the heat on in my home.
Somebody’s lying. Do you really want to get to 2040 and find out who?
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
