To the Journal editor:

I recently received a political mailer from our Lansing house representative, Jenn Hill.

In the mailer, Rep. Hill exclaims how much money Senate Bill 271 will be saving Michiganders with the 2035 goal for Michigan to use only“clean” energy.

This is just 12 years from now and Michigan currently generates about 25% renewable energy. This is purely a slight of hand, now you see it, now you don’t by Rep. Hill, Michigan’s Democratic Legislature and Gov. Whitmer.

I have read Senate Bill 271 and there is no guarantee of lower electric rates. Instead, the bill allows for rate increases of $3 per household and $16.58 per small business immediately.

More importantly, there is in the bill multiple exceptions that allow rate increases for unexpected contingencies by the electric companies. Much more importantly, the bill provides no guaranties for electric system reliability.

It is 20 degrees below zero on a beautifully calm winter night, where is our electricity coming from? Not solar nor wind. There has to be a back up electric generation system that can carry the complete electric load.

So, we the as electrical consumers in Rep. Hill’s central Upper Peninsula (district) along with the rest of Michigan get to pay for two complete electrical generation systems, one “clean” and one reliable.

Saving money? In 2018 the RES-Group, a global leader in renewal able energy, while working with Baraga County on a prospective wind mill farm project, specifically stated that the project would not reduce electricity rates!

Senate Bill 271 states “the goal of reduction of customer energy use is through installation of measures or changes of energy use behavior.”

In other words, it is through government mandates like the elimination of incandescent light bulbs being replaced by compact florescent that use less electricity but never lasted, that is the money savings.

We, the people, get to use less electricity, that is the goal!