Great Lakes Politics

The Michigan Legislature continued to atone for its "do-nothing" track record this week by passing House Bill 4647, which creates a tax credit for the production of wind power.  This tax incentive is intended to serve as a supplement to the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy that already exists at the federal level.

Wind power is important to Michigan because wind picks up a lot power over the Great Lakes, making it a very viable source of energy along our shoreline.  Wind energy is also relatively cheap, clean and renewable.

The Energy Office of the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth has produced a series of resource maps.  Those maps show the precise areas where wind driven turbines would be most beneficial.

This bill was introduced by State Representative John Moolenaar (R-98, Midand) in April of 2005.  It was approved by the House Government Operations Committee the following October; only to sit idle for more than a year.

Once the gubernatorial election was over, however, bill moved to a vote by the full House and through the entire Senate process in a mere two weeks.  This, of course, proves that the Legislature is capable of acting.  They simply preferred to do little more than token efforts at working and then blaming everything on Governor Jennifer M. Granholm (D, MI) in apparent belief that their inaction would somehow make her look bad.

That strategy obviously did not work.  Ms. Granholm was not only returned to office, but the Democrats captured control of the House and picked up a seat in the Senate.

All told, the phrase "Better late than never" may well turn out to be the un-official motto of the 98th Legislature.