GOP Lawmakers Advance Bills to Restore Local Zoning Control Over Green Energy Projects

Michigan Republicans say they want to put land use and zoning decisions for wind and solar projects back in the hands of localities.

The state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 8, 2020. Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

Michigan state House Republicans have put forward a pair of bills designed to return zoning and land use decisions about proposed green energy projects to local communities.

HB 4027 and 4028 were approved by the Energy Committee on April 22. All 10 Republican members voted for the bills, and all seven Democratic members voted against them. The measures will now advance to the House floor for further consideration.

None of the seven Democrats on the committee responded to requests for comment by publication time.

In 2023, shortly after the Democrats took control of both chambers of the state Legislature in the 2022 midterms, they approved legislation that transferred most of the approval process for all proposed large-scale windmill and solar farms to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), a three-member panel appointed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

The zoning change was part of the Clean Energy and Jobs Act, which Whitmer signed in November 2023. Also included were measures that streamlined permitting for clean energy projects and mandated 100 percent of electricity come from clean sources by 2040. Whitmer at the time quoted a report saying the package would save Michigan households an average of $145 a year in energy costs.

Republicans regained the majority in the House in the November 2024 election and immediately sought to reverse the zoning provision.

House Speaker Pro Tem Rachelle Smit (R-Martin) in an April 22 statement called the bills “a wonderful first step to restoring the local control that should have never been taken away in the first place.”

Whitmer did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Rep. Greg Alexander (R-Carsonville), the main sponsor of the bills, said in an April 22 statement that the proposed legislation would “reinstall” into Michigan law critical protections for local communities “to make property use decisions for themselves.”

“Local governments and residents know their areas better than the state. … When unelected state bureaucrats come in, cast local input aside, and impose projects on communities, it’s a textbook example of government overreach,” Alexander said.

According to Alexander, currently, green energy project applications can bypass local zoning ordinances and be taken directly to the MPSC for a certificate of approval to begin construction.

The Energy Committee minutes for April 22 list the Michigan Townships Association, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Association of Counties, the Farm Bureau, and the names of dozens of township and municipal officials as testifying or otherwise going on record supporting the bills.

On record opposing the bills were the Michigan Public Service Commission, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, several labor unions, the Solar Energy Industries Association and other green energy companies, and the League of Women Voters.

Michigan State Rep. Greg Alexander, R-Carsonville. Courtesy of Michigan House Republicans

About 17,000 acres of rural Michigan are occupied by wind and solar energy operations.

Three counties in Alexander’s district in eastern Michigan’s Thumb Area—Huron, Tuscola, and Sanilac—contain nearly 60 percent of the wind turbines in the state.

With more wind and solar projects in the pipeline, Alexander said he was worried “they will change the entire landscape of the region” and “impact property values, small business viability, available farmland, and many other elements of a community.”

“The community should be able to make that decision for itself,” he said.

Thumb area resident and Worth Township Supervisor Walt Badgerow, a Republican, told The Epoch Times that the 2023 policy change was “an egregious violation of civil rights and a blatant evasion of accountability.”

“We the people can vote out our local officials if they are not representing the community’s best interest. We can’t do anything to hold the Michigan Public Service Commission accountable.”

Badgerow, who is also a member of the Sanilac County Board of Health, cited the possible leaching over time of toxic chemicals from solar panels as a legitimate local concern that could be aired more easily at the town hall than at the MPSC offices in Lansing.

“I absolutely support the bills, but I’m not sure they will clear the Democrat-controlled Senate or be signed by the governor if they did pass,” Badgerow said.