Granholm urges regulations for wind farm industry

DETROIT -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm's support of offshore wind development in Michigan is clear.

The governor has embraced locating huge utility-scale wind turbines offshore on some of the 38,000 square miles of Michigan's Great Lakes bottomlands. She reinforced that view as the keynote speaker Wednesday morning at the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association Michigan Wind Energy Conference at Cobo Hall.

"Offshore wind provides an enormous promise for Michigan," Granholm said. "If properly developed, it can be a significant source of clean energy for the nation."

Offshore wind development would allow Michigan to produce "green power" and meet the growing mandates for renewable energy production while allowing the manufacture of wind turbines and their components in the state, Granholm said. For the governor in the state with the highest percentage of unemployment in the nation, it's all about jobs.

"We want to be the place where solutions for climate change are researched, developed and manufactured here in Michigan," Granholm said. "No other state in the country is as hungry as we are."

And when it comes to making the large wind turbine and structures needed for offshore wind production, Michigan is in a position to take advantage of not only the manufacturing capabilities of the beleaguered automotive industry but the water-based transportation of the lakes that can easily move the huge turbine parts throughout the region, she said.

As communities from Grand Haven to Ludington begin to debate a proposal of Scandia Wind Offshore to develop two large offshore wind farms off the West Michigan coast of Lake Michigan, Granholm did not endorse any particular plan nor location in the lakes. But she made a strong pitch for the Michigan Legislature to adopt offshore wind regulations this year developed through the Great Lakes Wind Council that she appointed.

Granholm said any offshore development will have to be done in an "environmentally sensitive" way. She endorsed the Great Lakes Wind Council's call for no turbines within six miles of shore, no disruption of the shipping lanes nor harm to birds and fish.

But when it comes to looking at wind turbines from waterfront properties, the governor does not seem persuaded by offshore wind opposition groups such as the Pentwater-based Lake Michigan POWER Coalition. She told The Chronicle that offshore wind farms cannot harm the state's tourism industry but that there are places along the state's coastline that are suitable for wind turbine development.

She encouraged the public to participate in the process, mentioning the Great Lakes Wind Council's public presentation scheduled for 6 p.m. May 4 at Muskegon Community College.

There was an urgency to the governor's message to the state wind conference. She acknowledged being term-limited and leaving the governor's office at the end of December. She said she wants offshore wind policies and regulations in place before the end of her term.

"We want to make significant steps toward offshore development, so whoever takes the torch next year will not be able to change course," Granholm said of a new governor and majority of the state legislature to be elected in November.