GENOA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) — Thanks to a law that passed in 2023 and took effect late last year, the Michigan Public Service Commission has the final say over renewable energy sites.
Public Act 233, which took effect in November 2024, gives the MPSC the final say on large-scale renewable energy projects. But Genoa Township is one of more than 70 townships and counties suing to repeal the law.
“We do believe that the local level should have the most say in what happens,” said Kevin Spicher, the supervisor for the Genoa Township Board of Trustees. “We view it as the state is taking away control from the local elected officials and we don’t think that’s correct.”
In a meeting on Monday, the Genoa township’s Board of Trustees approved new amendments that give local elected officials like Spicher a little more say in where a site could be placed.
“What it really did was just help us to be able to have a little more say in if this is forced upon us from the state level we can at least have a little more say in where it would go,” he said.