Members of PIE&G overwhelmingly trust Wolverine
By unanimous vote, the Presque Isle County Commissioners approved a proposed landfill for Wolverine’s clean coal plant, much to the dismay of the same few people opposed to the project. You can read the Advance’s reporting on the issue here. I found this quote interesting, the Advance writes, “Larry Shepherd of Ocqueoc cited a June, USA Today article, which he believes raises concerns about power plants being the targets of international terrorists. ‘Just think about what would happen to a silo loaded with hazardous materials if it was attacked. The water system from Rogers City to New York would be affected.’”
Targets of international terrorism? More like targets of the U.S. Government and Michigan Government.
The October 22 issue of the Advance included a story on the front page of a proposal made by Tom Karas. Tom was at it again, trying to scare the members of Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-op that it’s board and Wolverine were being careless with the members’ money and that the coal plant will be so wildly expensive. He planned to attend the annual meeting of PIE&G and demand Wolverine to reveal the total costs of the plant. Tom is now in charge of Co-op Conversations, a website he presumably started to try to “reason” with the people of the county to shut down coal and go for more wind and solar energy. The website claims, “The #1 Cooperative Resource in America.” I have written about this before, how the environmentalist claims moral high ground by authoritatively stating they are right and deceive people into thinking they are experts.
After reading Kara’s editorial in the October 29th issue of the Advance, I couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say.
To the editor,
On Friday October 30, Presque Isle Electric and Gas Cooperative (PIE&G) members will have the opportunity to attend their annual meeting at Onaway High School. The annual meeting gives members their best chance to learn about their co-op, the co-op that they are owners of. of special interest this year will be to understand the benefits of having their electric bills double in order to by power from the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture in Rogers City.
This is misleading because Karas points to a doubling of electric bills, but he does not disclose the reasons why. He intends to make the reader believe having the power plant at all will double electricity rates, but he does not say that it is because of extremist environmentalists like him.
I took time off of work to attend the PIE&G annual meeting yesterday. Karas was not let into the meeting because he is not a member of PIE&G Cooperative.
Some interesting things took place though in the two hour’s time I allowed myself to be away from work.
First, I learned some things I did not know. Wolverine has spent 20 million dollars to date checking into the feasability of this project, and in the same amount of time, they have spent 700 million dollars buying power from downstate utilities as well as Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Second, the reason we have a cooperative is because it is costly to provide energy to rural areas, in fact, because Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy and other big companies thought it too costly, local leaders had to find a solution on their own, and with strength in numbers, we are a co-op that is part of a larger family that serves 230,000 households and businesses.
During the business meeting, we were told that with only 267 members in attendance, it was not 1% of the membership of 30,900 so without a quorum, we could not discuss any new business. It is during new business that any motions can be entertained by any member in attendance, voted on by straw poll, as well as a question and answer period. However, leniency was given because of poor weather and motions were entertained.
Bob Brietzke made a motion that said, if over one half of the current membership of all the co-ops together decide they don’t want the plant to go forward, it shouldn’t go forward. The motion was effectively debated by Mike Centala who reminded the members that we have a board that we elect to make these decisions and Brietzke’s motion should be voted down. That motion resulted with 27 in favor and 155 against. Attorney for the board, David Werth mentioned that any motion would only be binding to PIE&G member co-op in any event.
Val Jaroche made a motion with very similar wording to Kara’s intent in the paper, that the full disclosure of the cost of the Wolverine project be given. That motion result was 16 in favor and 166 against.
Finally, Mike Centala moved to allow the PIE&G board to follow through with the Wolverine Clean Energy Proposal. When put to a straw poll, 169 members voted in favor of Centala’s motion, and only 8 voted against it.
The meeting continued with questions from the membership and I could see that my patience for the extremist environmentalists was wearing thin, and the day was slipping away, so I left.
In the face of the EPA putting the brakes on coal, and Michigan limiting mercury emissions, and every other obstacle, this town is resolute.
Read the whole story by clicking on the Rogers City Coal Plant page at the side bar of this page.
“Targets of international terrorists,” indeed, they are the targets of the United States Government and Michigan State Government. The terrorists really don’t have to target them.”
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