Michigan conservatives supporting clean energy initiatives travelled to the nation’s capital this week for the Third Annual Conservative Clean Energy Summit.
WGVU spoke with Keith den Hollander head of the Christian Coalition of Michigan.
“I think that what we found over the years is that there are so many reasons to engage on clean energy that there’s something for everyone. So when we cover clean energy from multiple perspectives you may disagree with me, for example an environmental argument, but you might agree with me for national security reasons. You might agree with me for cost hedging reasons. A lot of people, it’s the practical side of it. We look at what’s going on across Michigan and across our country. Coal plants are closing and being replaced with natural gas, at the same time as we’re getting ready to begin exporting natural gas on a much greater level. We have to expect our prices on natural gas are going to level with the rest of the world. Do we want to put ourselves in a position where our cost for energy is dependent on what’s going on in the Middle East for example, the instability that we see. Or do we want to have energy resources, we control the cost, and we have the ability to control our energy costs going into the future. I think for a lot of people that alone is an argument that gets them to kind of think about it differently and change the way they’ve always thought about it for years past.”
We asked what will be the number one issue, or main focus, of this year’s Conservative Clean Energy Summit.
“This year we are bringing something new into the discussion and we’re going to be talking about the changing face of transportation. What the world looks like with fuel cells and electric vehicles? Volvo recently announced that they’re going to eventually have their entire fleet be nothing but electric vehicles. Tesla has an ongoing lawsuit in Michigan to try to be able to sell their vehicles there. And then autonomous, how does that change the face of transportation as we know it? And so we’re adding a new element going beyond just power generation and talking about generation of power for powering automobiles and I think that’s going to be an exciting new twist for a lot of people.”