Michigan 100% clean energy bill gains 30 pages, passes committee in 16 minutes

It took 16 minutes for the Senate Energy and Environment Committee on Wednesday to approve a bill requiring a 100% clean energy standard from Michigan utilities by 2040.

“Normally these hearings are an hour long,” said Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center’s director of energy and environmental policy. “This one was 16 minutes. 16 minutes to fundamentally reconfigure the state’s electricity grid.”

Much of the substantive discussion on the bill took place behind closed doors, out of the public eye. Since Senate Bill 271 was submitted in April, it went through at least eight revisions. In that time it grew by 30 pages, from 27 pages to 57.

The 57-page bill is the version the committee passed, without the bother of debate.

Read it for yourself: Senate Bill 271 of 2023

Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, started the meeting by offering a brief update on what had changed since lawmakers last discussed the bill last month.

Then the committee discussed two other bills, Senate Bill 273 and 502. And then the committee approved all three.

Seventeen minutes after it began, it was over, and the bill to require a 100% clean energy standard within 17 years was headed to the full Michigan Senate.

The Michigan Senate passed the bill in a party-line vote, 20-18.