RESOURCES:
Ann Arbor for Public Power (A2P2)
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and my guest today is A2P2 president, Greg Woodring. And we are here to discuss Ann Arbor for Public Power. This is a grassroots organization that has been advocating for public power for about five years. Is that correct?
Greg Woodring: That's right!
Caroline MacGregor: I know that the City of Ann Arbor narrowly voted down the feasibility study into the idea of a public power utility. Where do we stand since that time? I believe you still want to move ahead with efforts to place this on the 2026 ballot.
Greg Woodring: Yeah, that's right! So, the City of Ann Arbor has certainly taken steps in the past towards public power. They've completed a phase one feasibility study. And that feasibility study suggested that acquiring the energy grid and running their own power utility is, quite likely, economically feasible, and it suggested taking that next step to do a valuation study. And that study would have created a legally defensible number for the city to offer to DTE because, while DTE is forced to sell to the city if the city makes an offer, DTE can contest the price that the city is offering. And so, what this study that was up for a vote in March would have done is it would have prepared that legal argument for the city to begin the acquisition process. Unfortunately, due to recent developments at the federal level in relation to federal funding, the city council became nervous about spending this type of money on this project at this time. And so, it was voted down. In our opinion, well, it's understandable to have concerns about funding this sort of project that increases local resiliency that puts power back into our hands that challenges these oligarchic controls of our basic resources, such as power, are only more important nowadays. And we're hoping that the City Council will reconsider with time. However, our movement certainly hasn't stopped. There are still options for us moving forward, and what we are planning to do is to put this question on the ballot in November of 2026. What we would likely be doing is we would create the structures of the utility. We would still need that study to be done, and so, the City Council will still need to move forward with that. But our thinking is that we will create this entity within the city government that will ultimately become the utility that can serve as a vehicle to push this forward and also create a mandate for City Council to take action on this issue.
Caroline MacGregor: With regards to federal defunding, how valid are these concerns in your mind?
Greg Woodring: I mean, it's hard to know with the Trump administration any given moment what's going to happen. Certainly, they have a habit of saying they're going to do things and walking things back or claiming that they're going to do things that they have no authority to do. And sometimes, they still do those things that have no authorities to do, so it's hard to say, for certain, the amount of funding that is potentially up to be cut hasn't been cut yet. Certainly, to that extent, we'll see what happens. However, the City of Ann Arbor absolutely can afford this process. The funding for this study had already been secured through excess money in the general fund from last year, as well as the sale of air spaces for a building. Council member Chris Watson, actually during his statement at that meeting, very well laid out why the money was available for this project. So, it's certainly disappointing that City Council got cold feet on this. We're certainly living in uncertain times. That only makes the need for something that is going to allow us to locally address climate change, which the federal government has completely given up their obligation on, as well as increase our own local resiliency and ensure that, regardless of what happens with these larger ecosystems, we're going to retain control of our power future and be able to put those decisions back into our own hands. It's only more important nowadays.
Caroline MacGregor: How strong is DTE's opposition to this?
Greg Woodring: DTE certainly strongly opposes this. We have seen them put out a study with very little backing. We put out a counter-statement, kind of taking apart some of the issues with this study that they put out. But they put out a study trying to build fear around the prospect of it, claiming outrageous costs associated with it. They've certainly been lobbying our city government and local elected officials. They have been picking up their advertising campaigns, and they have also invested a great deal of money in our local energy grid. I think it would be foolish to think that they would have done that without the type of pressure from this campaign. If Ann Arbor is successful in municipalizing, they would be the first city in Michigan to have ever done a municipalization campaign through acquisition. And so, while this is a process that is guaranteed as a right to cities by our state constitution, it hasn't been tried. And so, DTE sees this as a red line. They see this as something that could open the door for other communities to follow suit. And it's going to seriously challenge their monopoly status. Right now, they are one of the largest lobbying forces in our state government. They have a huge amount of control over the Legislature, who has stripped the Michigan Public Service Commission of much of their regulatory authority. And even the Michigan Public Service Commission, who is supposed to be regulating them, is directly appointed by the largest recipient of DTE money, which is the governor. DTE has very little reason to address issues of climate reliability or cost, which are outrageous compared to national standards. And so, this is a very serious challenge to their otherwise unchallenged authority. And from my perspective and from the perspective of Ann Arbor for Public Power, that is a whole lot of reason to be doing this.
Caroline MacGregor: If the plan was to go ahead, tell me how it would work.
Greg Woodring: Yeah, absolutely! So, as I mentioned, the state Constitution guarantees the city the right to purchase out the electrical infrastructure. The Home Rule City Act allows it to run an electric utility, which, as I mentioned, there are already 42 other public electric utilities in the state: Lansing, Chelsea, Traverse City, Wyandotte, Holland. They all have very well-run, public electric utilities that charge less than half of what we're currently charged in electrical rates while maintaining more than four times higher reliability and also have a cleaner energy mix than DTE. And so, it's very possible for a city to run a power utility. In fact, universally, when you look across the state or across the country, they're running them better. How it would actually work is we would buy out the local distribution grid. And what people may not know is that there is a difference in electricity between distribution and transmission. Our local distribution grid takes money off the transmission grid, which is run by a nonprofit called MISO. We would be buying the connections to that larger nonprofit. And so, what DTE does is, because they are a generation and a distribution utility, is that they generate their power. But then, they put that power onto MISO and so do all of the other electrical generation facilities throughout the state and region. And so, every solar field, every wind field, every power provider is putting power onto MISO. When we buy that local distribution grid and we buy the connection to that transmission grid, we now have access to this energy market, and we can choose where we are buying our power from. And so, that's the method we would use to reach 100% renewable power, is that once we have the ability to choose where we're buying our power from, we would explicitly target renewable energy power providers. The reality of the situation is that our economic structure and our political structure is built upon industries, which are fundamentally incompatible with a sustainable future. The oil industry, resource extraction industry, the energy utilities all rely on this business model that simply can't continue if we are going to have a habitable planet in the future. The current administration is a reaction to the reality that the powers that be cannot accept a future that is necessary. And so, ultimately, the power structures that undergird this system need to be challenged. And I think that it's only more clear nowadays. People are going to need to demand serious change. I think that this campaign is an example of that, but it's not the only one. We're going to be willing to be comfortable being uncomfortable with the level of challenge and the pushback that we're going get. This is not something that these large, billion-dollar industries are going to easily give in on. Yeah, it's a scary time for a lot of different reasons in America right now, but this is the hand we've been dealt. This is the challenge that we have in front of us. Ultimately, the reason why I got involved in doing this type of work is because I was terrified--because I was so scared of the future and what it seemed to be holding for us. And for me, the only thing that ever allowed me to sleep at night was feeling like I had my hands at the wheel. It's up to us to reclaim our power over this situation. It's up to us to fight for a future that we want to live in and that we want our children to live. That's why I would advocate people to get involved in our campaign or others because that's, ultimately, the only thing that's going to change the situation is a large group of people demanding that change.
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me about some of the events that you have planned for Earth Day.
Greg Woodring: Absolutely! We have a great Earth Day event coming up at Clonlara School in Ann Arbor on April 26th, 1 to 5 p.m. Abdul El-Sayed is going to be our keynote speaker, as well as Yousef Rabhi and Michelle Martinez and Michelle Deatrick. It's going to a great event to learn about public power, to network with people who are committed to addressing the climate crisis and to learn how to get involved in local actions, so that you can join us in taking on these powers that be.
Caroline MacGregor: Anything else you'd like to add?
Greg Woodring: I would just say that it is a very difficult time to have hope and to be optimistic towards the future. And that is why it's ever more important to do so. It is to the benefit of those who would have us stop addressing climate change, to remove the democratic structures from our institutions, to push the fascist ideology that, unfortunately, we're seeing at the high level to have us give up. We can't do that! We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our neighbors and to future generations to continue believing in a future we want to live in. And I think that getting involved, putting yourself out there, it's a lot of work. It's not easy, but there's nothing that's going to help you sleep better at night and nothing that's going to allow you to feel more control over your life than getting involved directly. That's what I would say.
Caroline MacGregor: A2P2 President Greg Woodring. Thank you so much for joining me today!
Greg Woodring: Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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