LANSING, MI – This week, Michigan Senate Democrats rammed through their ‘Green New Deal’ without bipartisan support, eliminating the use of reliable energy sources, increasing costs, threatening the economy, and expanding the size of government.
As Democrats have remained mostly silent on the passing of these bills, Republicans and business leaders across the state have voiced concerns about the extreme policies that will hurt Michigan families.
More Expensive and Less Reliable Energy:
- Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt: “As if the prices of groceries, gas, and housing aren’t increasing enough, higher energy bills are now being added on top of the almost $2 billion in payroll and income tax increases getting pushed through the Legislature by Lansing Democrats.”
- Sen. Bumstead: “I believe it is possible to build up an environmentally conscious and reliable energy grid without raising costs on families, seniors, and small businesses or imposing one-size-fits-all mandates.”
- Sen. Mark Huizenga: “The simple reality is that forcing the end of reliable energy production for less reliable and more expensive energy at increasing rates will only increase costs”
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy: “There’s no doubt that people would quickly experience increased costs and widespread grid instability as a result of a wind, solar, and battery backup-based electric grid.”
Threatens the Economy:
- Rep. Pauline Wendzel: “It’s going to hurt our constituents, it’s going to hurt our state, it’s going to hurt our economy — it’s dangerous what they’re doing.”
- Rep. Bill G. Schuette: “Under this Democrat plan the operations of our local energy providers would be threatened with devastating impact on the area economy.”
- The policies allow vital farmlands to be used for solar farms, threatening Michigan’s “second largest industry”, according to Sen. Ed McBroom.
- Great Lakes Growth: “These bills will also disproportionately affect small businesses and small to mid-sized manufacturers who rely on affordable and reliable energy in order to operate.”
Expands the Size of Government:
- SB 519 creates a “Community and Worker Economic Transition Office” for workers who lost their jobs because of the Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’
- Democrats are expanding the size of the government because their ‘Green New Deal’ kills current jobs.
- The ‘government-driven’ mandates declare the energy, automotive, and construction industries to be the losers.
Plus, Senator Dan Lauwers pointed out the rapid changes of the bill language made behind closed doors, a continuation of the Democrats’ lack of transparency:
- “The bills we voted on today were not the bills voted out of committee yesterday and far from the bills introduced months ago. The final product put in front of us came from partisan deals made in the cover of night. For months there has been no transparency, no negotiating, nor time to read the bills as they were taken up for a vote before the ink even dried.”
“From day one, Democrats have introduced and passed extreme legislation that hurts Michigan families, and makes life more expensive and less convenient,” said Mary Drabik, Communications Director for the Michigan Freedom Fund. “These extreme energy mandates damage Michigan’s free market and contribute to the unsustainable growth of government — increasing the burden on hard-working taxpayers and costing the state jobs. Per usual, Michigan Democrats fail to admit the gravity of their out-of-touch policies as they steamroll them through the legislature.”
