Hal Newnan
DTE Energy wasn’t making many friends in the third-largest city in Michigan. In an ambitious plan to save energy, Warren City was converting all of its streetlights to energy-smart LEDs, having already converted 10 percent without a hitch. Until, that is, DTE began to notice that the city was buying less electricity.
LED lights use less than a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs, last over 20 times as long, and contain no mercury, all of which add up to fewer emissions, less waste, and big savings for the city. But to DTE, an energy company with a monopoly over Warren City, LED streetlights mean less electricity consumption, and less profit. So, DTE proposed a bizarre plan of action: a tax on LED lights that would completely erase any economic benefit the city could gain from installing them.
Their claim, that the company had to pay for upkeep of the infrastructure of LED lights, was a “factually devoid claim,” according to Sierra Club Representative Andrew Sarpolis. It “caused a big ruckus with the municipality,” he notes, because the city was trying to save its funds instead of wasting them on coal-powered electricity.
DTE Energy gets 75 percent of its power from coal. “DTE consistently tries to sell us on the value of coal,” says Sarpolis. But the monetary cost of coal has been going up as pollution controls on coal plants get stronger, to the point that cleaning up old coal plants was becoming so costly that even taxing LEDs was starting to look like a good source of income. But when the savings in using energy-sipping lights instead of energy-gulping ones vanish, then the incentive to use them disappears as well. The very idea of the tax was perverse, encouraging energy waste and continued CO2 emissions from coal.
“DTE is not motivated by the best interest of the people,” continues Sarpolis, adding that the company’s proposal “doesn’t help us move to a clean energy economy.”
The Sierra Club had been fighting against coal power in Michigan for many years, but now, with the relationship between the coal-pushing DTE and Warren City turning sour, it seemed a perfect time to act. Many Sierra Club volunteers in Warren City were politically active, including self-described “full time volunteer activist” Hal Newnan, pictured above on the right with Warren City councilman Robert Boccomino. So effective are Warren City’s Sierra Club volunteers that the Club’s logo is even featured on the municipality’s website!
With Sierra Club voices heard in Warren City’s council, and with Warren City already disgruntled with DTE, it was a surprisingly smooth process for the city to pass two resolutions in favor of cleaner air and less energy from coal. The first resolution condemned the rate increase for LED lights and criticized DTE’s dependence on coal rather than renewables, while the second supported the most stringent ozone pollution regulations being considered by the EPA.
Both resolutions, held in the picture above by Newnan and Boccomino, passed unanimously last month with bipartisan support. With asthma rates a huge issue in Michigan and with coal power becoming ever-more expensive, the decision to save energy and promote healthy air was not political, but simply common sense.
“It’s showing the EPA that Michigan wants strong standards” for air pollution, says Sarpolis. “And it continues the pressure on DTE, telling them that they need to go back to the drawing board.”
Through the tremendous efforts of activists in the Oakland County Beyond Coal Campaign, the Sierra Club has made solid allies of the Warren City council, joining many other municipalities in its strong stand against ozone pollution and coal power. And as the LED lights of the city glow on, the future is looking just a little bit brighter.