U.P. Energy Summit Held At NMU

For the original story and video from ABC-10’s Melanie Palmer, click here.

The U.P. Energy Summit was held Thursday on the campus of Northern Michigan University.

Energy resources have been a topic of discussion in recent months, such as the potential natural gas plants being placed in Baraga and Marquette counties.

Michigan Public Service Commission Chair Sally Talberg says the approval process for these plants is still in the works.

“Well the local utility applied with the commission with what is called the certificate of need that was done at the end of January. The commission, it’s 270 day process, and we’ll evaluate need for the plant, we’ll look at different alternatives, and then make a decision whether they should move forward with the construction of the facilities,” said Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman, Sally Talberg.

Governor Rick Snyder discussed the issues that have plagued the U.P. regarding energy resources, such as reliability and affordability.

Snyder says the use of integrative asset management could be extremely useful in the U.P. by sharing energy sources with the state’s neighboring areas.

“I’m proud to say that we’ve had a study going that will hopefully get done sometime this year about doing a connection to the Lower Peninsula, but we’ve actually expanded it to say; could we also connect to Ontario? They have some great power sources there and they’re our neighbor. So let’s be forward and say, there is more than one option here, let’s look at them all,” said Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder.

Snyder said the U.P. is a leader in clean resources with the use of biomass.