“Wind & solar, combined with batteries, will solve sustainable energy for Earth,” Elon Musk tweeted on Jan. 31.

He quickly added an asterisk in a second tweet: “Hydro, nuclear fission & geothermal will also be significant parts of the solution.”

So, wind and solar are the future, when you add in stuff that works reliably, like nuclear energy. Got it.

Ram found itself in the same predicament this week, when it rolled out a Ram EV truck with the mother of all asterisks: A “range extender” in the form of a gas engine,” as reported by Car and Driver.

That’s right. To make sure its EV truck works and can get people to point B, the Ram EV truck won’t have a bigger or better EV battery. It will rely on the technology that’s been known reliable for a century, the internal combustion engine.

Jason Hayes, director of environmental policy at the Mackinac Center, sees in Musk’s tweet and the Ram’s range extender an admission: Green energy, on its own, is not reliable.

Hayes argues energy reliability in Michigan is being dismantled by a premature transition to technologies, such as wind and solar, that are not ready to take over from coal, natural gas and nuclear.

“We are moving away from the notion that we can use technology to provide continuous reliable electricity to the notion that the planet requires us to stop using unless the planet has decided to produce electricity via wind or the sun,” Hayes told CapCon. “Our lives will change markedly.”

Hayes warned of this scenario in a June 2021 blog post, “While Michigan’s Electricity Rates Increase, Reliability Suffers.”

As Hayes wrote then:

It is essential for Michigan residents to realize that their ability to choose is being restricted as utilities build an electrical system that now operates on much thinner margins than in the past. Utilities are closing large, reliable, fossil fuel and nuclear plants and attempting to replace them with reliably unreliable wind and solar.

But intermittency and unreliability are unavoidable artifacts of a system designed around energy sources powered by the often unexpected caprice of weather.

Two years later, DTE Energy is moving to a peak-hour pricing system whose energy costs will rival California’s during the summer months.

• Related reading: DTE’s peak-hour rates in Michigan are on the cusp of California’s

At a Tuesday press conference in Lansing, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Senate Bill 7, and its $946 million of spending, into law.

Whitmer touted the speed of the bill’s progress, which was passed and signed into law just one month into the new Legislature, which is under Democratic Party control.

“This is the earliest a Michigan governor has signed a bill into law since 1947,” Whitmer said.

Whitmer hailed the way the bill enacted “in a bipartisan fashion.”

• Read Senate Bill 7 for yourself
• Read the House Fiscal Agency analysis of Senate Bill 7

Senate Bill 7 was supported by eight of the Michigan Legislature’s 72 Republicans. (There are 54 in the House and 18 in the Senate). All 76 of Democrats (56 in the House, 20 in the Senate) supported it.

In the House, four Republicans voted yes:

• Cam Cavitt, Cheboygan
• Gregory Markkanen, Hancock
• Mike Mueller, Linden
• Curtis VanderWall, Ludington

In the Senate, four Republicans voted yes:

• John Damoose, Harbor Springs
• Mark Huizenga, Walker
• Dan Lauwers, Brockway Township
• Ed McBroom, Vulcan

Damoose sent an an email to constituents, touting the state’s gift of $200 million to an Escanaba paper mill that is not required to create a single job, even thought the money is labeled as part of an economic development project. The company only has to retain the 1,000 job-headcount it had as of October 2022, and only for a decade.

• Related reading: Lawmakers spend a quick $706M of Michigan’s money
• Should bipartisanship be celebrated in Michigan?

“This is a major investment that will strengthen the local economy and keep the mill operational for generations to come,” Damoose wrote in the email. “I am proud to stand up for Upper Peninsula families and help secure funding to keep these jobs long into the future.”

Damoose went on to defend corporate welfare as a practice, as well as bipartisanship.

“I will continue to support strategic investments and policies that foster growth and secure the economy of the entire Upper Peninsula,” Damoose added. “This was a great bipartisan effort that invests in the state’s future and a real win not only for the Upper Peninsula, but for all of Michigan.”

• The House roll call vote, via House Journal 8 of 2023:

• The Senate roll call vote, via Senate Journal 8 of 2023: