by Elisabeth Waldon
Daily News (MI)
PINE TOWNSHIP — The Pine Township Board heard nearly an hour of public comment at Monday’s meeting focused on the township’s need for an updated wind energy ordinance.
Audience members also repeatedly asked the township board to place a moratorium on any township wind activity, but Supervisor Bill Drews said this isn’t an option, according to the Michigan Townships Association.
“A moratorium in Michigan is not really something that can happen,” he said. “We can put a pause on accepting any applications, but a moratorium in its true sense is not part of Michigan law.”…
Along with asking for a moratorium, multiple audience members requested that Leenawee County resident Kevon Martis be allowed to speak at a future township board meeting to counter information presented by Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy officials at previous meetings. Martis is a senior policy fellow at Virginia-based Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and is founder and executive director of the Interstate Informed Citizen Coalition, “a non-profit corporation dedicated to raising public awareness of the potential impacts from the construction of industrial wind turbines in Ohio and Michigan,” according to the E&E Legal website.
Pine Township officials did not respond to audience requests regarding Martis.
