Posts

The U.S. Senate has passed its historic climate change legislation, and the House of Representatives is expected to soon follow suit and send to President Biden to sign the bill. The political victory comes not a moment too soon, with a rapidly warming planet striking communities with one climate-related disaster after another. Leelanau County, too, is enjoying the momentum of the clean energy movement. Earlier this summer, Leelanau Energy launched its “Energize Leelanau Challenge” initiative to locate clean energy or energy efficiency projects in the county that are shovel-ready and that benefit communities, and help fund them with seed money totaling between $250 and $15,000 per project.

Northport Energy has changed its name to Leelanau Energy, expanded its mission and recommitted itself to advance renewable energy.

The Northport Energy group is educating and progressing the village and region towards renewable energy that can be sustainable and beneficial for the community, environmentally and financially. What started with some retired professionals seeking intellectual stimulation 10 years ago turned into a drive to steer the community in a greener direction.

Just before Christmas, Ian Olmsted and a team from Peninsula Solar completed the installation of 70 rooftop solar panels above the Art’s Annex, the former gas station turned t-shirt shop next to the popular tavern in downtown Glen Arbor. The solar array will generate 30,000 kilowatt hours annually —satisfying 15-20 percent of Art’s energy load.

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor When Gary Cozette and Joe Lada climb the ladder to the roof of their “Tower House” in Burdickville, they behold a breathtaking view of the Glen Lakes, with the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan in the distance. In their immediate foreground is an array of recently installed, cutting-edge solar […]

The League of Women Voters Leelanau County (LWVLC) Energy Committee will host a public forum on “Community Energy Resilience: How do we achieve it?” Tuesday evening February 25 from 6-9 p.m. in the Leelanau County Government Center. The League’s goal is to create community conversations related to saving energy, generating electricity, and learning how “less can be more”, all related to building resilience in the face of energy issues that are and will continue to impact our community.

With this year’s primary election upon us and voters casting ballots on Tuesday, Aug. 7, we reached out to Derek Bailey and Allen O’Shea — two progressive Democrats who are vying to oppose incumbent Republican Ray Franz for Michigan’s 101st House seat in the November election.

Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail supporters, car enthusiasts and renewable energy advocates will have an opportunity to test drive a GM Chevy Volt on Tuesday, July 31, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor. General Motors, a strong supporter of the Heritage Trail, will make the trip to Glen Arbor with three Chevy Volts to test drive.

Northern Michigan legislator Ray Franz, who often talked about repealing a Michigan law requiring that 10 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources tells the Michigan Land Use Institute he will no longer pursue the matter.

Courtesy of the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service — A newly elected state representative who says he doesn’t believe in man-made climate change and supports building a nuclear power plant in northern Michigan is standing by his recent claims about wind power, despite fact checking that indicates most of his assertions were incorrect.