Save the Date: Cherryland Annual Meeting June 16, 2010, 3pm
Cherryland Cooperative Annual Meeting at Wuerfel Park

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Wolverine Co-op Air Permit Denied by State of Michigan, Skyrocketing Rate Increases Idenitifed as Major Reason
Cherryland Board Election Seen as Pivotal Event

The state's decision is based on findings of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which said the company failed to demonstrate the plant was needed to meet future supply needs.

The MPSC staff also determined that building the proposed plant would increase electricity rates paid by average residential customers to 20.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. The 59.2 percent rate increase would cost the average residential customer $76.95 more each month. Only Hawaii has a higher average kilowatt-hour rate. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STATEMENT

THIS JUST IN Read the response from Wolverine and Cherryland to Permit Denial by State of Michigan

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2010 Cherryland Board Election

Members, every year we have the opportunity to participate in the make-up of the Cherryland Board of Directors. This should be viewed as a responsibility of membership, but sadly, last year less than 2,000 members voted out of a membership of over 33,000. So only 6% are letting their voice be heard in this very important democratic opportunity.

I like the old line “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain”. Take that to heart. So when your rates skyrocket to pay for a coal plant, unless you voted, please keep your voice down. When you realize that your co-op could offer more transparency, but keeps information as shielded as possible, unless you vote the old policies are guaranteed to stay in place.

This spring the ballots show up in your Country Lines magazine the first week in May. There are two races for at-large seats on the board. We want you to consider voting for some new perspectives on the board. If you want a new direction away from an expensive coal plant and secrecy you have to vote for new leadership to get the co-op back on the right track.

But you have to vote! It will only take a minute and the ballot goes right back into the mail, painless and the result will hopefully pay dividends well into the future. Talk to your neighbors and urge them to vote as well. Our goal is to increase the voting percentage to 10% this year. If you miss the mail-in ballot you can also vote at the Annual Meeting June 16 at Wuerful Park.

Please vote, help us elect new leaders to the Cherryland Board, and get us back on track! Contact Us: mail@Co-opConversations.org

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Wolverine By The Numbers

• $70 million – The amount sucked out of member pockets since 2004 for new power supply
• $28 million – The amount of member money already spent from that fund on a bad idea
• $1.2 Billion – The only cost estimate Wolverine has ever given for their coal plant, in 2006
• $3.15 Billion – What may be the actual estimate if you use estimates from their air permit data
• 17 – 19 cents – The cost per kilowatt of electricity coming from the plant
• 8 – 10 cents – The cost you pay now
• ZERO – The amount of new power supply the Michigan Public Service Commission says Wolverine needs
• 1 – The number of natural gas plants Wolveirne purchased last year, but still want a coal plant
• Unlimited – The amount of money Wolverine can continue to take from members for new plants

Members have an opportunity to change this tragic course of wasting member money for proposals that are not needed. Vote this year for new members of your board of directors. When your ballot shows up in the May Country Lines magazine, vote for new representation on the board, not the same folks who have helped to create this badly flawed process of throwing your money down a black hole for a coal plant that will double your rates, harm the environment, and isn’t even needed!

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State Readies Wolvering Co-op Coal Ash Hearing | CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORTS
Michigan—Rogers City resident Joseph Veselenak likes to tell how, decades ago, the school’s football team showed up for practice one day and encountered a bizarre sight. A goal post was tilting crazily: One end of it was literally sinking into the ground. Mr. Veselenak, who coached Rogers City football in the late 1960s and through the ‘70s, immediately knew what the problem was. The goal post was slowly being swallowed by a rare form of geology that is actually quite common in Presque Isle County, where Rogers City is located: a blend of highly porous limestone, sinkholes, and underground caves, streams, and aquifers known collectively as “karst geology.”

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Presque Isle Solid Waste Management Plan Fails Scrutiny PDF
There is no need for the negative impacts of the associated landfill that is now before the Board of Commissioners (“BOC”). As a result, allowing the landfill to be built would violate the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, which prohibits harm to the environment where, as here, cleaner alternatives are feasible and prudent.

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Actual Coal Ash Spill in 2009 | Enlarge

In Rogers City, Strong Criticism of Coal Ash Proposal
Rogers City—A large number of Presque Isle County residents are questioning a plan to store massive amounts of toxic waste from a proposed 600 MW coal-fired power plant in the same giant limestone quarry near Lake Huron where the plant itself would be built. he sharp public opposition to the landfill was the second unpleasant surprise of the day for Wolverine officials: Just a few hours earlier, they had received word that the Michigan Public Service Commission had determined that the company did not need to build a new power plant to meet its customers’ future energy demands.

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Rogers City Plant Flunks “Prudent and Feasible” Test
Great Lakes Bulletin News Service Data submitted to the state by Wolverine Power Cooperative concerning its proposed Rogers City coal plant is deeply flawed, according to a national firm that consults on energy, economic, and environmental topics.

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Wolverine FAILS Alternative Energy Analysis Consideration by State PDF
Wolverine failed to demonstrate the need for the proposed facility as the sole source to meet their projected capacity. In particular, long-term purchase power options were not fully explored as part of their analysis. It should be noted that the majority of Wolverine’s long-term projected capacity need is based upon the expiration of power purchases (540 MW) on or before December 31, 2011. Wolverine has presented no evidence that the capacity currently supporting this existing contract will be unavailable in the future.

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Do Wolverine’s Economic Numbers Add Up?
On May 3, 2008, Wolverine Power Co-op released a preliminary study by Anderson Economic Group predicting how the proposed Roger City coal plant would affect local tax and employment revenues. But according to an analysis by Tom Sanzillo of T.R. Rose Associates, AEG omitted a number of considerations that it used when it studied a proposed Midland plant, as well as Mr. Sanzillo’s previous analysis that conservatively predicts the new Wolverine plant would double the electric rates of its local affiliate, Presque Isle Electric & Gas. All other data comes from PIE&G annual reports.

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Wolverine Mum On Coal Plant’s Price
When Wolverine Power Cooperative announced plans to build a new, coal-burning power plant near Rogers City, the company said it would cost about $1.2 billion. But although a lot has changed in the coal and utility industries since Wolverine’s announcement three years ago, the co-op refuses to publicly discuss how those changes affect its proposed plant’s 2006 price tag. Many financial experts familiar with the energy and coal industries say that those changes have made the cost of new coal power very high, and made investing in new coal plants very risky. That, they say, is why utilities around the United States cancelled approximately 100 new coal plants in recent years, often in favor of less risky, cheaper energy efficiency and renewable energy plans.

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Mich. governor wants utilities to rethink coal
February 3, 2009 LANSING, Mich. - Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to make it harder for utilities to justify building new coal-fired power plants, encouraging them to instead rely on more energy conservation. Speaking Tuesday in her seventh annual State of the State speech, Granholm called for reducing the state's reliance on electric plants powered by coal and natural gas 45 percent by 2020. The Democrat said she wants to see 100,000 homes and 1,000 schools in the state weatherized to reduce energy consumption, and get more homes and schools to install solar and wind energy systems. She suggested the monthly savings would pay for the cost of the improvements. Some of that weatherization work can be done by people who have lost their jobs, she added. Four companies have requests before the state Department of Environmental Quality to build new coal-fired power plants, the most requests for new coal plants anywhere in the country. The state already has 19 coal-fired plants. In making it harder for companies to build new power plants that rely on coal, Michigan is following the example of other states. Wisconsin officials recently rejected a request for a new coal-fired power plant, and Kansas officials have rejected proposals to build two plants in the southwest corner of the state.

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Cherryland votes to self-regulate
TRAVERSE CITY -- Cherryland Electric Cooperative is the first co-op in Michigan to become self-regulated under a new state law. The board for the Grawn-based utility unanimously voted this week to assume authority for setting its own electric rates. Cherryland members can challenge the move with a petition signed by 5 percent or 750 members of the cooperative, whichever is less, and secure a two-thirds majority vote of the membership to overturn the decision. Cherryland serves around 33,000 members in its six-county service area.

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Energy Cooperative Election Spending: Outrageous
The first thing former school principal Mike Galvin said he’ll do if elected to the board of Intermountain Rural Electric Association, the state’s largest energy co-op, is enact sweeping reform of the election process itself. “IREA spent $500,000 in 2007 to lobby against alternative energies; spent $100,000 in 2006 to purchase the skewed opinions of an industry-paid spokesperson skeptical of climate change warnings; and, spent less than $75,000 to defray energy costs for senior citizens and low income households,” said co-op member and activist David Harlan of Divide. Harlan also accused the co-op of improperly spending funds to support the campaigns of incumbent board members who rubber-stamp the anti-renewable agenda.

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Co-opConversations.org exists as a tool to educate cooperative members in Michigan, and beyond, about potential problems that exist today in some co-ops right here in America. The question every co-op member needs to ask is “If I am a member-owner, would I risk my hard earned money this way?”

We are looking for volunteers to help us manage co-op news for this page, if you are interested, please send us a note and we can talk about how you can contribute to your state effort CLICK HERE.