Wind industry declares war on Michigan man

‘Like a Cult’ producers sling mud for clean energy

By Jamie A. Hope | March 28, 2023

Wind energy activists believe they have found an explanation for the waning popularity of wind projects in Michigan and around the county: a cult of homeowners whose objection to turbines is, according to a new video clip, wholly irrational.

‘Like a Cult’, a documentary-style ten-minute video from environmental activist Peter Sinclair and Yale Climate Connections, attacks local residents and officials in Michigan who express concerns about wind energy projects in their townships.

The video singles out Kevon Martis, Deerfield Township zoning administrator and a recently elected Lenawee County commissioner. Sinclair pieces together a shadowy network of brainwashing and gaslighting, with Martis as the cult’s high priest — or “Big Cheese,” according to an intertitle.

The video attempts to tie Martis to April 2020 COVID-19 shutdown protests at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing and the January 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C.

Sinclair blames Martis for the unwanted participation of residents at townhall meetings, which has revealed deep opposition to and shallow support for landscape-altering wind turbine projects. Popular opposition to wind turbines in Michigan is part of a national trend that has dealt ballot-box defeats in several states to wind giants like NextEra and Apex Clean Energy. But Sinclair believes he sees the fingerprints of Martis everywhere.

“Time and again, when Mr. Martis becomes involved, formerly low-key meetings become settings for anger and division,” Sinclair says in the video.

The video had 5,200 views as of March 28.

Sinclair, who admitted in a Saginaw County meeting that he has been paid by energy companies, nevertheless slams Martis for his work with E&E Legal, which he says has also received money from many of the same companies.

The video also neglects to mention that its three most prominent subjects — former local elected officials Jed Welder, Phyllis Larson and Terry Anderson — were all recalled by voters in elections where turbine opposition was the main subject of campaigning.

Welder was the sole vote against an ordinance in July 2021 to protect Sidney Township from an industrial-scale wind turbine project. He signed a wind energy easement agreement with Coral Wind I, LLC, an affiliate of Apex Clean Energy August 2020.

Douglass Township Supervisor Anderson was forced to apologize to local resident Cindy Shick after removing her from the planning commission over rumors she had divulged documents to someone outside the commission. Shick was elected to replace the recalled Anderson.

Phyllis Larson was a Winfield Township supervisor who signed two wind leases and voted for a wind-friendly ordinance. Residents later voted that ordinance down in a referendum.

Michigan State Police investigaged Larson and other officials last August over their tactics for publishing notices of the proposed wind ordinance, according to a story in the Daily News of Montcalm County. Though local residents accused Larson and others of violating public notification laws, no charges were filed.

Unseated but unbowed, the three politicians now critique the false consciousness of the voters. “It’s almost like a cult-type deal,” Welder says of his neighbors and former constituents who opposed the turbine project.

Ashlyn Newell, identified in the video as a resident of Maple Valley Township and a science teacher, says township officials were threatened and that there is still fear in the community. She did not provide evidence of those claims.

Newell declines to mention that she and her husband signed a wind lease with Apex for their property. A memorandum of the wind lease was recorded Oct. 23, 2020, according to the Montcalm County Register of Deeds.

“Depending upon the terms of the contracts, typically hosting a wind turbine will bring $8,000 to $12,000 per year or more, depending upon the size of the turbine,” Martis told Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

Only 5% of Detroit 8th graders read at proficient level

A review of NAEP scores for Michigan’s largest district confirms the need for education reform

By Molly Macek | March 27, 2023

Only one out of 20 students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District scored at a “proficient” level on the eighth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test. Lawmakers are taking notice but have yet to introduce a bill that effectively addresses the problem.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, chair of the Senate Education Committee, mentioned Michigan’s performance on the 2022 NAEP test in a recent tweet. The NAEP, or “The Nation’s Report Card,” assesses each state’s reading and math performance at critical time points. A review of Michigan’s progress on standardized tests like the NAEP is an important step in developing effective solutions.

A review of NAEP scores for Michigan and its largest urban district confirm the dire need for education reform.

Just 5% of students met the minimum score needed for Detroit’s 50,000 students to be prepared for higher-level coursework. And the district’s performance was not significantly different than it was in 2019 or 2009. Things have not changed for the better over time.

Detroit also performs poorly when compared with similar urban districts in the United States. The Detroit Public School District scored significantly lower than 25 comparable districts on the eighth grade reading test in 2022. Among those districts that performed better were Baltimore, the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Even worse, Detroit has consistently scored the lowest among urban districts in every test of reading and math since 2009. (Districts are tested at the fourth an eighth grade level.)

Detroit teachers, administrators, and schools are all richly funded. The district has received more money per student compared to the state and national average since 1994. The district’s revenue in 2021-2022 totaled just under $1 billion. Detroit charter schools consistently receive less funding per student than schools in the Detroit district, and they perform better. More funding does not appear to be the solution.

The education outlook for the state of Michigan is not much better. Forty states performed better than Michigan on the fourth-grade reading test in 2022. Fewer than three out of ten students scored “at or above proficient.” Only three states scored “significantly lower than Michigan.”

And Michigan’s average reading score fell by 6.5 points from 2002-22, compared to the national public’s average score, which fell by only half a point.

Lawmakers have recently introduced bills that reduce school accountability. The repeal of the Third Grade Reading Law removes provisions that help ensure a student’s literacy development before advancing to fourth grade. The repeal of the A-F school grading law eliminates a transparent system for monitoring school progress. But a reduction in school accountability at such a critical time is not the solution to our state’s education crisis.

Instead, targeting the long-term trend of failing schools in Detroit would be a step in the right direction. Rejecting accountability measures does not seem likely to create improvement.

Standardized testing is an essential tool for understanding the dire state of education in Michigan. Lawmakers would do well to apply data from these tests to solutions that target the state’s – and nation’s – most underperforming urban district.

Molly Macek is director of the education policy at the Mackinac Center. Email her at macek@mackinac.org.