Ann Arbor voters will be asked in November if they want to create a local Sustained Energy Utility, or SEU.
The idea stems from a report presented to the City Council last year where a key recommendation was to purse an SEU as the city moves toward community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. Consultants say an SEU would accelerate renewable energy in Ann Arbor.
While city officials see the SEU as a supplement to DTE, others would like to go further.
Ann Arbor for Public Power (A2P2) Executive Director Brian Geiringer says they hope it could be a steppingstone to replace the big utility.
“We would hope that it’s something that gains the trust of residents that can eventually become the sort of hyper-local branch of the full-scale municipal utility.”
Geiringer says they’re happy to see that funding for a Phase 2 study is included in the budget. He says they’re asking the City Council to give A2P2 a seat at the table when defining the scope of the study.
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