LANSING, Mich. — State Sen. Dan Lauwers, R-Brockway Township, issued the following statement on Wednesday after Lansing Democrats voted to shift zoning decisions for solar and wind generation away from local governments and into the hands of unelected Lansing bureaucrats:
“The ideological reasoning behind this radical push we hear from Democrats is that we need to save the environment and our planet. Do they honestly think the best way to preserve Michigan’s natural resources is to bulldoze them and replace them with towering windmills, chunks of metal, wire, access roads, and batteries?
“My question is this: Will there be windmills in downtown Detroit? Will there be windmills in Ann Arbor? Will there be hundreds of acres of solar farms within the city limits of Grand Rapids? The answer, of course, is no, but there will be in my district, and there will be in all of rural Michigan if these bills are signed into law. Not one of the communities represented by the bill sponsors will be forced to bear the burden of these initiatives. That burden will land on rural Michigan.
“This ridiculous California-like scheme will require the razing of farmland all over our state to make way for millions of Chinese-made solar panels and wind turbines, ignoring the fact that Michigan isn’t a particularly sunny or windy state.
“Covering our state with solar panels and wind turbines will put more Michigan farmland out of production, which in turn, puts pressure on the agricultural businesses that put food on our plates. Simply put: The more land removed from production, the more the supply chain struggles, and the more costs go up. We’ll have fewer farms, and in exchange we’ll get more unreliable energy and higher rates. It’s a lose-lose situation if I’ve ever seen one.
“Proponents of these bills have consistently stated that locals know best when it comes to schools and other issues, but when it comes to overhauling Michigan’s entire energy grid, us simple folk in rural Michigan need the government to tell us what’s best for our communities and our land.
“I voted no on these bills because, like the rest of the energy reforms pushed by the Democrat-led Legislature, they are a sham and do nothing to make Michigan better, but do a lot to allow Democrats to pat themselves on the back for doing something and giving the governor the talking points she desires for her federal office ambitions.”
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