Dive Brief:

• Michigan lawmakers will likely vote next month on two plans to reshape the state's energy policy, including compromise strategies addressing renewable energy and retail choice, Midwest Energy News reports. 
• But proponents of those industries say the proposals do nothing to boost green energy because the goals are voluntary, and will likely kill the state's choice program with a hefty load of restrictions and rules.
• Earlier this month the state's House Energy Policy Committee passed two amendments, including a 30% renewables goal by 2025 and a compromise which would keep the state's energy choice law at 10%.

Dive Insight:

Midwest Energy News has a detailed look at proposals being considered to reshape Michigan's energy future, but the upshot is that the devil is in those details. 

Michigan's choice law has caused problems for the state, with up to 10% of a utility's customers allowed to take service from third party suppliers. With utilities complaining the system makes planning difficult, lawmakers struck a compromise between maintaining, expanding and eliminating the program. House Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R), who chairs the energy policy committee, proposed maintaining the 10% choice limit, and put in a three-year review and an annual assessment for third party suppliers. 

"I feel I've provided a good compromise between those that want to further go to retail open access and those that want it eliminated," Nesbitt said.

But opponents of the plan say there are many rules and restrictions being added which will essentially kill the program. The proposed legislation puts a 15-year halt on a customer's ability to choose an alternate supplier, if after doing so once they return to the incumbent utility. And if you are in the queue but choose to stay with your utility, a 20-year waiting period goes into effect.

“I don’t think there’s any debate: It will kill choice,” Rick Coy, legal counsel with the Association of Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity, told Midwest Energy News. “The combination of all the restraints and restrictions on it does not preserve choice.”

And the arguments against the state's 30% renewable energy goal are simpler: It's voluntary, and therefore doesn't have much weight. “I appreciate the amendment and trying to kick the ball forward,” Union of Concerned Scientists energy analyst Sam Gomberg told the news outlet. “But it doesn't do anything a renewable energy standard does in terms of certainty, market development and something to sink your teeth into.”