President Barack Obama has called for stricter regulations on coal-fired power plants. Michigan which has a large portion of its energy supplied by coal fired power plants, is likely to be impacted. Sixty-five percent of its energy is produced by coal. Although Michigan’s two largest electric utilities, Consumer Energy and DTE Energy, have been investing heavily in pollution controls equipment recently, it has not been aimed at reducing the carbon dioxide emissions cited in the President’s new initiative. Electric power plants contribute about 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. One impact in Michigan may be to see the faster introduction of new natural gas fired power plants. Another may be to encourage DTE Energy to build the new nuclear power plant for which it as a permit application pending.
