The Essential Environmental & Energy Blog

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has released its draft MI Healthy Climate Plan to address climate change in Michigan. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Directive 2020-10 tasked EGLE through its Office of Climate and Energy to develop this plan.  The plan aims for Michigan to achieve 100% economy-wide carbon neutrality to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to protect air quality and the Great Lakes, while also advancing equity, creating good paying jobs and increasing economic competitiveness.

The plan seeks to reduce GHG emissions from 2005 levels by 28% by 2025, 52% by 2030 and to obtain 100% carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan focuses on the leading sectors contributing to the state’s GHG emissions: transportation, electricity generation, industry, and commercial and residential buildings.

The plan seeks to attract advanced manufacturing, to upgrade the power grid, to deploy more renewable energy, to build new transportation systems, and to eliminate energy waste in homes and other buildings. Some of the plan features are:

• As part of the efforts in the transportation sector, the state includes building the infrastructure to support two (2) million Electric Vehicles (EV) on Michigan roads by 2030, creating and funding an EV incentive program for purchasing EV and charging stations, transitioning the state’s fleet to 100% zero emission vehicles by 2035 for light-duty vehicles, and supporting schools, local governments, small businesses and others with transitioning their fleets to EVs.
• For businesses and homes, the plan adopts an energy waste reduction target of 2% for electricity and 1% for natural gas, will explore opportunities to help small businesses and families invest in clean energy projects such as renewables and weatherization, and adopts the 2021 Model Energy Code including provisions related to EV charging.
• The plan also identifies solutions to address impact disparities, including for communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. As part of environmental justice efforts, the plan will ensure state funding for climate-related projects that meet Justice40 guidelines, and support clean energy business development with a focus on underrepresented communities.
• Encourage the development of clean industrial hubs, triple the state’s recycling rate to 45% by 2030, favor public and public-private procurement programs using low-carbon and circular-economy products, and protect 30% of Michigan’s land and water by 2030.

The plan leaves details and actions to be decided and is intended to be a living document to continuously improved over time. Members of the public are invited to provide comments. Comments can be emailed at any time to EGLE-ClimateSolutions@Michigan.gov.