Michigan Localities Fight to Keep Zoning Control Over Large Wind and Solar Developments

Townships and counties appeal a state order that they say limits their power to regulate renewable energy projects as Michigan is aiming for carbon neutrality.

The Amazon Fort Powhatan solar farm in Disputanta, Va., on Aug. 19, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A new Michigan law slated to take effect on Nov. 29 has triggered a legal battle over the right of communities to regulate renewable energy projects within their jurisdictions.

Over 70 Michigan townships and seven counties are challenging PA 233, in order to keep the state Public Service Commission (MPSC) from limiting local zoning authority over large-scale wind and solar developments.

PA 233, enacted by the state Legislature in November 2023, is a law designed to expedite the construction of windmills and solar panel farms to help keep Michigan’s renewable energy goals on track.

The municipalities appealed on Nov. 8 an October MPSC order that they claim misinterprets state law and strips local governments of the power to regulate such developments.

Climate advocates say the appeal may be “the most important legal challenge to the renewables industry in America.”

Michigan is pursuing a path to reach 100 percent carbon neutrality by 2050. In response, some township boards adopted stringent zoning regulations, imposed numerous conditions, and passed moratoriums delaying windmill and solar farm construction for years.

Some see PA 233 as a way for these projects to overcome local regulations.

Top-Down Policies Questioned

Michael Homier, an attorney for the municipalities, said the projects are still on track.

“None of our clients have precluded these facilities. They have not banned them outright. They are fighting for a voice,” said Homier in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Homier told The Epoch Times that his clients are struggling to retain jurisdiction over time and space in the face of the rapidly expanding new land use in which the “top-down, one-size-fits-all approach does not work.”

Climate advocates said the new law is a model answer to the familiar “not-in-my-backyard” argument often put forward by project opponents seeking to block new renewable energy developments in their communities.

Homier said in a statement announcing the appeal that his clients are fighting to preserve their right to enact locally tailored regulations that balance the benefits of renewable energy with “the need to protect community values, public health, and safety.”

Homier told The Epoch Times township government is “the closest to their constituents of all the levels of government,” and thus it knows what is best for its community.

Homier said the Oct. 10 MPSC order is a misinterpretation of portions of PA 233.

“The MPSC ruling is viewed by many local leaders as a direct encroachment on home rule and an attempt to centralize power at the state level, disregarding the preferences and concerns of local communities,” he wrote in the statement.

Homier further asserted that the MPSC’s decision “violates both state law and constitutional principles of local governance.”

All parties in the appeal accept that PA 233 provides the maximum limits a local government may impose on developers in areas like lighting, height, noise, setbacks, and fencing.

The disagreement centers largely on MPSC’s interpretation that the law prohibits local authorities from imposing additional zoning regulations on utility-scale renewable energy projects beyond those enumerated in PA 233.

Homier wrote in the statement that the MPSC’s decision “threatens to leave [his clients] powerless in the face of large-scale renewable energy projects.”

Homier said in the statement the municipalities’ appeal is an attempt to hold the MPSC to promises made by the Legislature to local governments that they would have a role in project siting decisions.

“The legal action is expected to draw attention from stakeholders across Michigan as both local governments and renewable energy advocates await the outcome of this appeal,” he said.

An MPSC spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation and pointed The Epoch Times to the commission’s previous orders.