October 2025
Michigan House Approves Nuclear Legislation
Strong bipartisan vote sends bills to Senate
The Michigan House of Representatives approved a 6-bill legislative package (HB 4124-4129) to advance nuclear technology in the state. The legislation includes programs for workforce training and retention, a production credit, as well as modest tax incentives for research and development. The bipartisan bills passed on yes/no votes ranging from 85-19 to 78-24. The tax credit bills garnered a little less support from legislators who generally oppose tax credit bills.
The package is now pending in the Senate Energy & Environment Committee. MICEF will be working diligently to build an equal level of bipartisan support for the package in the upper chamber. Governor Whitmer has already indicated her support for the bills. With this legislation, the imminent reopening of the Palisades plant, and proposals for upscaling or expanding generation at existing nuclear facilities, Michigan’s nuclear portfolio is well positioned for growth.
Michigan Takes Leading Role in Solar Manufacturing
U.S. supply chain getting stronger every quarter
Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor, a Dow Corning subsidiary, announced a dramatic increase in their production capacity for solar panel precursor components (silicon ingot and wafers).
“This quarter, we expect to move from producing thousands of wafers a day to more than 1 million a day,” said Corning CEO Wendell Weeks. These production processes have added over 1,000 jobs to the mid-Michigan area.
Given the hard lessons the U.S. learned during the Covid pandemic about offshoring our supply chains and President Trump’s push to bring back American manufacturing, the solar industry is working at breakneck speed to domestically produce solar panels, inverters, racking, and other solar energy equipment. In June, MICEF toured QCells’ state of the art, start-to-finish solar panel factory near Atlanta, GA. Thousands of jobs have been created in Georgia too. Solar energy is here for the long haul!
Utility-Scale Batteries are New Energy “Gold Rush”
Data centers & utilities see them as capacity solution
The utility-scale battery “gold rush” is on in Michigan and across the country. Every week MICEF learns about more developers and projects being scoped out for Michigan’s grid. Our Land & Liberty Coalition® team is active in multiple communities across the state, helping local officials and residents understand and navigate the project siting and permitting process. The 2023 clean energy law passed by the Michigan Legislature set a goal of adding 2.5 gigawatts of battery capacity by 2030. MICEF is aware of at least 4 gigawatts of capacity well into the planning stages, much of which could be online by 2028 or 2029.
Meanwhile, proposed data centers are asking our major utilities to provide multiple gigawatts of additional energy. Utilities are bringing proposals to the Michigan Public Service Commission to meet these demands that rely on batteries to leverage existing generation capacity. DTE Energy has structured a deal with OpenAI/Oracle to provide 1.4 gigawatts of power to a massive facility near Saline, MI. OpenAI/Oracle is offering to pay for the batteries to be built that will insure needed power supply which will buffer DTE’s other customers from bearing any of the investment costs.
Bill Gates Reframes Climate Projections
Technology-driven perspective matches MICEF perspective
Bill Gates turned heads in October via a lengthy blog post that pushed back on the extreme climate change rhetoric that has been common for so long. His statement was blunt and essentially said that climate change is not an existential threat to humanity’s survival, and doomsday scenarios are wrong.
He went on to discuss dozens of innovative technologies being developed across every sector – electricity generation, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and more – that will lead to a long term reduction in harmful emissions. Gates’ “new” posture matches the perspective MICEF has brought to the energy and “climate” space since 2013. If human activity is contributing to climate change, it’s being driven by our use of technologies. Equally so, technology and innovation will allow us to reverse such impacts. We hope Bill is okay with sounding more like a conservative energy advocate.
More EV and Battery Setbacks
Auto industry in Michigan feeling the crunch
The U.S. auto industry's retreat on the electric vehicle front is hitting Michigan hard, as every auto downturn does. General Motors announced thousands of job layoffs in October, centered primarily around EV battery production at plants in Detroit and Ohio. With federal tax credits for EV purchases having ended on October 1, automakers are scaling back production plans in anticipation of slowing EV sales.
Likewise, a planned Ford battery production plant planned for the Big Rapids area has been functionally declared dead after ferocious local opposition, including ongoing litigation. Intense scrutiny of Ford’s partner in the project, Gotion, a Chinese-founded corporation with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and heated rhetoric made it difficult at times to sort fact from conspiracy fiction. A massive tax incentive deal offered by the state of Michigan has been suspended and millions of dollars granted for early-stage development will not likely be recovered with the project’s expected demise.