State Rep. Dave Prestin on Tuesday testified before the House Energy Committee in support of his plan to safeguard the long-term viability of energy production in the Upper Peninsula. His proposal, House Bill 4283, would reclassify the energy produced by the U.P.’s 13 Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine (RICE) generators as renewable until the end of their lifecycle in 2049, allowing them to remain operational under new renewable energy standards.

“In the 10 years before recent renewable energy laws went into effect, the U.P. was already leading in clean energy by decommissioning coal power plants ahead of the rest of the state. We lowered our CO2 emissions by more than 70% because we built the RICE units,” Prestin said during committee testimony. “There is nothing worse for the environment than energy poverty. If the U.P. is forced to close our RICE generators early, that’s exactly where we’re headed. It will force our largest employers, who depend on affordable and reliable electricity, to leave the U.P. entirely. We’ll lose thousands of good paying jobs, and we’ll lose thousands of residents over the border to Wisconsin.”

The RICE generators were built to stabilize the U.P.’s energy grid following the decommissioning of the Presque Isle and Shiras coal power plants in 2019. The newly constructed generators have a lifecycle through 2050. While calculations vary, new energy laws could add tens of millions in additional costs for U.P. ratepayers. In additional to normal energy bills, monthly residential charges will increase by as much as $80, monthly commercial bills will increase by nearly $3,500, and bills for large industrial companies by just over $470,000 per month.

“Losing our largest power plants meant that the U.P. was threatened with tens of millions of dollars in System Support Resource payments, because our grid would effectively be a burden on the transmission grid going into Wisconsin,” said Prestin, R-Cedar River. “To avoid these SSR payments, we needed to build new generation. It was decided that these RICE units would be the best solution because they’re relatively mobile and can be deployed close to where the energy demand is, and because they can scale up and scale down their generation based on the needs of the electric grid.”

Prestin joined state Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton, in testifying before the energy committee. Bohnak spoke in support of his portion of the plan to protect RICE generator operations by allowing them to remain open through 2049. House Bill 4007, introduced by Bohnak, would exempt the 13 RICE generators from sweeping green energy legislation passed in 2023.

The plan to save the RICE generators remains in the Energy Committee awaiting a potential vote.

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