Our host Jim Vinoski details the craziness happening with electricity in Michigan and what it means

Manufacturers uniquely rely on affordable, reliable energy for their business models.

Unfortunately, legislators in Michigan's House of Representatives just last week passed a bill that will make our electricity a lot more expensive and a lot less reliable.

Here are the basics:

Even before last week's bill, Michigan was already on a path to big problems, with plans to shut down all coal our plants by 2032. They generated 30% of our electricity in 2021, and that was before the Palisades nuclear plant shut down (now folks are desperately trying to reopen that to help keep the lights on).

The new bill mandates 100% "clean" energy by 2040, including 60% from renewables like wind and solar. The new bill doesn't, however, contain an actual plan for how we'll do that and still have reliable energy.

Wind has a capacity factor here of about 40%, and solar even less - during December and January, it drops below 10%.

Oh, natural gas can still be used - as long as it also incorporates carbon capture and storage, a technology that doesn't even exist at scale for grid-level electricity generation.

It's like our legislators just handed us a pile of cloth and ropes, and needle and thread, and told us to jump out of an airplane.

What's the very likely result? Blackouts, almost certainly starting in the next several years as our coal plants shut down.

Manufacturers in Michigan need to start laying in plans accordingly.

This episode aired originally on Nov. 7, 2023.