A stunning decision by the U.S. Supreme Court called ‘time out’ on the enforcement of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) until legal challenges are resolved. The main question that must be answered is whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) even has the legal authority to impose these regulatory requirements on existing power plants under Section 111(d) in the first place. Last August the EPA [...]
Unlike other states, there is no question as to whether or not Michigan will attempt to meet the Clean Power Plan’s aggressive targets for carbon dioxide emissions reductions from power plants. We will. The question the state is currently wrestling with is, “How will we do it?” The Timeline By September 2016 Michigan must show that we are on a path to developing a [...]
Commitment to community is more than a corporate value at Team Midwest; it’s a way of life for the family of employees. In January, employees presented checks of $5,347.20 each to Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Wounded Warrior Project through the Midwest Employees Give Back (MEGB) Program. An additional $7,900 was donated over the course of 2015 to organizations and individuals through employee-sponsored [...]
When John Peck took the position of operations supervisor for the City of Croswell last year, safety was high on his radar. In his quest to take safety to the next level he began a conversation with Dallas Braun, general manager at Thumb Electric Cooperative. Ultimately, the dialog led to the City of Croswell joining MECA’s Safety program. “We are really looking forward to [...]
Students from 17 regional public schools will enjoy new opportunities this semester after Midwest Energy Cooperative awarded $30,476.20 in Strengthening Schools grants. The grants are funded with partnership dollars from Touchstone Energy Cooperative. A committee comprised of co-op members evaluated and scored 89 applications totaling more than $156,000, then determined the final awards without knowledge of the school, district or community. Committee members included [...]
‘Twas the night before Christmas when 70 mph winds whipped through Michigan, knocking down trees and power lines, and leaving thousands of Michigan residents without electricity. Collectively the windstorm resulted in nearly 120,000 outages for Michigan’s electric co-ops. “This event was more challenging than the Christmas ice storm of 2012,” commented Joe McElroy, safety and loss control director for the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association. [...]
After 24 years of editing and writing for Michigan Country Lines magazine, Gail Knudtson is moving on and plans to “spend more time with family and friends, travel as much as possible, do some volunteer work, and maybe get back to some freelance writing!” she says. After earning a journalism degree from MSU and seven years as a newsletter editor for the Michigan Chapter-National [...]
The Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op Board of Directors has approved another year of participation in CoBank’s “Sharing Success” program, a $3 million fund that benefits co-ops and the charitable groups they support throughout America. CoBank is a nonprofit co-op that serves as a “bank for cooperatives” nationwide. Under this program, CoBank has matched contributions by PIE&G’s members (through its Operation Round Up/Communities [...]
Nick Edson, local page editor and key accounts rep for Cherryland Electric Co-op, is retiring after 15 years of service and writing great stories for Michigan Country Lines magazine. “When I started working at Cherryland, I was given the chance to do volunteer work and it changed my life,” Edson says. “My goal was to make Cherryland better known in the community for the [...]
Each year, over 4.5 million people in the U.S. are bitten by dogs, with one in five requiring medical attention. People most affected are senior citizens, children, postal workers, and utility workers. “We brought in a national expert in fall 2015 to train our co-op and municipal member employees on ways to prevent dog bites and attacks, but this is also information they can take [...]
