No Future For Energy Futures Task Force?

Have the lights gone out on the Leelanau County Energy Futures Task Force (EFTF)? Last Tuesday, the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners rejected a request that would have allowed that body to continue meeting for the remainder of the year. The decision effectively disbands the group, at least for now.

The EFTF was created by the board of commissioners last fall, getting a one-year runway to “identify opportunities and facilitate implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Leelanau County.” That one-year timeline ran out last month, and despite suggestions from EFTF leadership that the group be given a multi-year extension to make more of an impact, commissioners have not formally discussed prolonging the task force.

In lieu of a long-term extension, EFTF leadership sought permission to continue meeting until the end of 2024, to tie up loose ends with still-pending grant applications and to give the incoming board of commissioners — which will have five new members — the chance to decide the future of the task force. The board rejected that proposal without any discussion, effectively terminating the EFTF.

“I’m greatly disappointed, but not entirely surprised,” says Joe DeFors, EFTF chair. “I think the most frustrating part of this is that it's the sticking-your-head-in-the-sand response. You can kill the task force, but it doesn't make the fundamental issue and value of clean energy go away.”

DeFors, who serves as board president for the grassroots group Leelanau Energy, views the cancellation as a substantial blow for green policy in Leelanau County. He argues that losing the county’s backing will make it harder to bring energy-related grant dollars to Leelanau, and will eliminate a useful platform “to role model behaviors” around green energy.

“With this task force, we wanted to have the county government become a role model for our citizens, to show them the ability of clean energy to save money and to do good things for the environment,” DeFors tells the Leelanau Ticker. “We applied for multiple grants to finance energy projects in the county, but we also have a robust public education program. We write public articles for the senior services bulletin that reach over 6,000 people, providing seasonal tips on how to save money with energy and how to stay warm through the winter, among other things.”

Despite its well-meaning aims, the EFTF generated significant controversy in its one-year run. For one thing, DeFors repeatedly clashed with District 7 Commissioner Melinda Lautner, who insisted on being a member of the 14-member task force and subsequently voted against almost all its proposed initiatives. The task force was also investigated by the Michigan State Police for violating the Open Meetings Act (OMA), and DeFors himself was accused of conflicts of interest due to his affiliation with Leelanau Energy.

DeFors dismisses most of those controversies as “non-issues.” The OMA violation, for instance, he says arose out of “confusion over this unique status as a task force, because there really wasn't good guidance at the county for how we should behave.” Still, he suspects the EFTF never got past those early stumbles in the eyes of its critics.

“Rather than starting with strong positive momentum, we were knocked off balance, and it did us some harm,” DeFors says. “I think that drew the attention of a small group of people who were looking to throw stones.”

The task force and its work ultimately became a matter of partisan debate. Throughout the recent election cycle, one Board of Commissioners candidate, Republican District 4 hopeful Jim White, vocally opposed an EFTF-led effort to install solar panels at the Leelanau County Government Center. And last week, when commissioners voted on whether to allow the task force to continue, the vote broke 2-3 along party lines, with Democrats Ty Wessell and Kama Ross in favor and Republicans Lautner, James O’Rourke, and Doug Rexroat opposed. (The other sitting Democrat on the board, District 6’s Gwenne Allgaier, left Tuesday’s meeting early and missed the vote.)

Allgaier, who co-chaired the EFTF along with DeFors, is hopeful the new board will see value in rebooting it.

“I started the group with Kama Ross and Joe DeFors, who had told me that an energy committee that was part of a governmental entity would have access to federal grants that his layman’s Leelanau Energy would not,” Allgaier says. “That means the citizens of Leelanau would have an opportunity to benefit from our tax dollars coming back home to work for us. We have written three grant requests this year; the first two have been turned down, but I believe that in the grant world, one just has to keep trying.”

The new board’s support (or lack thereof) is a question mark. While Wessell beat White to keep the District 4 seat, he and Allgaier are the only current commissioners who will be on the new board when it takes office in January. They’ll also be part of a Democratic minority, with four of the five new members – District 2’s Mark Walter, District 3’s William Bunek, District 5’s Alan Campbell, and District 7’s Steve Yoder – falling on the Republican side of the aisle.

Because of that split, DeFors fears partisanship will be a problem going forward, but says he’ll leave it up to the current members of the EFTF to decide how to proceed.

“We’ll come together as a group and make a decision on whether or not to attempt to go forward with the new board once they're seated,” DeFors says. “I think we’ll just have to see about the politics next year.”

In the meantime, DeFors says the EFTF’s outstanding grant applications are in limbo. The task force didn’t get the largest of the grants it sought – a $1.5 million proposal to the Michigan Public Services Commission to fund the aforementioned government center solar project. But DeFors says there are actually two other grant applications – one to the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability for “a study on energy use and attitudes throughout Leelanau County,” and one to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians to install electric vehicle chargers at the government center – still pending.

“I would imagine, if there’s no task force, those initiatives would have to end as well, regardless of whether we get the grants,” DeFors says.