profit
environmental
organization based in Ann
Arbor.
The group was notified
earlier
in
the
summer
that the University had
submitted a request for
an air permit, and began
to raise questions over
why the University was
making such a long-term
investment into fossil fuel-
based energy.
To voice the Ecology
Center’s
concerns,
Arvan penned a public
comment
to
MDEQ
on
the
organization’s
behalf
highlighting
the
shortcomings
of
the
University’s proposal and
asking the department to
“suspend its assessment
of the Permit to Install in
question.”
Arvan’s letter discussed
the lack of transparency
in the Board of Regents’
decision-making process,
the project’s commitment
to
fossil
fuels
over
renewable energy and the
lack of the University’s
environmental leadership
compared
to
its
peer
institutions.
“The problem here is
that they haven’t looked
at relative alternatives,”
Arvan said. “So what could
they do instead of spending
$80 million on a natural
gas turbine? Could they have
explored renewable energy?
Could they have explored
various
alternatives
that
could’ve been better for the
environment and maybe even
economically?”
Given that MDEQ has no
regulatory power over the
University and is compelled
to
grant
the
air
permit
if
the
University
meets
predetermined criteria for
natural gas turbines, Arvan
said the purpose of the public
comment was to express the
Ecology Center’s concerns
and make the issue known
publicly.
Arvan is concerned by the
air permit hearing being held
over the summer when the
bulk of the student body was
out of town.
“I think it’s by design that
this thing kind of flew under
the radar,” Arvan said.
Given the $80 million cost
of the project, Arvan insists
transparency is key.
“One of our concerns is just
that this is a huge magnitude
of money,” Arvan said. “It’s
clearly a big decision and it
seems like the university did
a lot of the decision-making
in private without consulting
anybody in the community.”
The central concern Arvan
and
the
Ecology
Center
have with the natural gas
turbine is that it commits the
University to rely on natural
gas for decades. Meanwhile,
in a fast-evolving market
for renewable energy, more
sustainable
options
could
become more affordable over
the course of that time.
“Renewables
are
becoming more and more
and
more
effective,”
Arvan said. “This plant
is basically going to have
a lifetime of 20 years
or longer, so what this
project is is it forces the
university to commit to
natural gas for a really
long time. In that time,
we
don’t
really
know
the
extent
to
which
renewables might become
even more competitive
than natural gas.”
LSA
Earth
and
Environmental Sciences
Professor Adam Simon
is
“not
absolutely
convinced”
that
the
upgrade is the smartest
decision
for
UM.
He
agrees with Arvan that
the turbine commits the
university
to
natural
gas for too long, but
pointed out that there
isn’t a consensus within
the
environmental
community about whether
natural
gas
is
more
sustainable than coal.
“While it is true that at the
point of combustion, natural
gas emits less greenhouse
gases than does coal, that
is
only
when
emissions
are counted at the point of
combustion,” Simon wrote.
“During mining and transport
of natural gas, we know that
fugitive leaks of natural gas
occur where natural gas leaks
to the atmosphere.”
Simon
said
that
the
university does not count
potential fugitive emissions
of natural gas, which is
standard practice. And while
natural gas is cheap at the
moment, Simon said its price
is volatile, and could become
economically unsustainable.
University officials stand
behind
the
environmental
sustainability of the Central
Power
Plant
expansion,
touting its improvement over
current energy generation.
“The
new
15-megawatt
combustion turbine to be
added to the power plant
will reduce the university’s
overall
greenhouse
gas
emissions by an estimated
80,000 metric tons per year,”
University
spokeswoman
Kim Broekhuizen wrote in
an email to The Daily. “That
is the equivalent of removing
more than 17,000 passenger
vehicles
from
the
road
annually.”
Broekhuizen
said
the
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