ABOUT CITIZENS FOR ENERGIZING MICHIGAN’S ECONOMY
The Citizens For Energizing Michigan’s Economy (CEME) is a Section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization which maintains, as its primary purpose is to educate legislators and the general public on issues facing Michigan and the United States. CEME also advocates for citizen participation and obtains support for public policies in Michigan. While CEME does not expressly advocate the election or defeat of any clearly identified candidate for public office or ballot questions, CEME furthers the social and economic values of the community by developing public education programs about issues relating to candidates or ballot committees.
CEME’s mission is to educate candidates, elected officials and the general public on issues including: (1) The protection of reliable, affordable, cleaner energy for Michigan’s families and businesses; (2) The economic development for our local communities; and (3) policies that will help the State of Michigan grow and prosper.
The CEME Board of Directors utilizes the following questions as a measure to help determine your knowledge, actions and commitment to issues facing Michigan. This questionnaire is used to inform the public and industry leaders on where candidates stand on issues affecting economic and energy policies. Only candidates who return this questionnaire will be included in this discussion.
As an applicant for consideration of an educational campaign, please complete the following questionnaire and return it to:
CEME
2145 Commons Parkway
Okemos, MI 48864
or complete the questionnaire at the link below:
www.energizingmichiganseconomy.org/questionnaire/
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PREAMBLE
Growing Michigan’s economy is critical to our state. Michigan’s economy should be diverse and innovative to create new jobs, attract new businesses and compete in a global economy.
An essential part of growing the state’s economy is maintaining and investing in the state’ energy infrastructure that will not only create new Michigan jobs and spur economic growth but will help to protect the environment.
ENERGY POLICY PREAMBLE
Michigan’s energy laws and policies need to ensure an energy market that has certainty for Michigan’s future energy needs. When passing energy policies, legislators need to consider leading the way to ensure reliable power to meet the state’s energy needs for years to come. Michigan’s energy construct has established key principles to provide reliable, affordable, safer and cleaner energy to Michigan residents and businesses. The key principles are:
Reliability: In Michigan, reliability is critical to keeping our lights on. Michigan needs to invest in the right resources in order to meet Michigan’s peak electricity needs on the hottest days of the year. Michigan utilities are investing heavily into the system to prevent outages and hardening the system, while keeping affordability top of mind. Michigan is modernizing the power grid to lead the clean energy transformation. That means employing the latest smart technology to reduce energy waste and give customers more control of their bills.
Affordable: The affordability provisions in Michigan’s energy construct have helped utilities continue ensuring customers’ bills are affordable for all customers. The law promotes affordability through the following:
- Utility costs are closely scrutinized by state regulators after wide input from interested parties on what new spending is justified to secure the grid.
- Michigan provides energy assistance funding to lower income customers who are struggling to pay their bills.
- Michigan has some of the most aggressive energy efficiency programs in the country, which have saved Michigan customers billions of dollars since 2009. These programs give customers more control over their energy bills along with simple ways to reduce their bills.
- Michigan laws require owners of private solar installations and out of state developers, pay an equitable contribution for their use of Michigan’s electric grid. This reduces subsidies that was given to owners of private solar by funding it on the backs of all utility customers.
- Finally, the law addresses a simple principle– customers should only pay for what they use. The law will help better ensure fairness in Michigan’s partial deregulation system by helping to ensure everyone pays their fair share of capacity.
Clean: The state enacted an energy law in 2023 that among other things, establishes a 60% renewable energy requirement and a 100% clean energy standard for Michigan. By 2040, Michigan will produce all its energy from clean sources.
