While Michigan is actively working to produce more of its energy from renewable sources, Valerie Brader, senior policy adviser on energy and executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy, says using and wasting less energy is a key component of our state’s energy future.
“That helps our environment, it helps keeps residents’ energy bills down, and helps our overall reliability as a state because we don’t need as much. So it’s really in all residents’ best interest to get something done.”
Brader spoke with Kirk Heinze on Greening of the Great Lakes following the recent Governor’s Energy Excellence Awards ceremony at MSU’s Wharton Center.
“The honorees highlight how here in Michigan we can invent and build things that really benefit Michigan residents.”
Brader tells Heinze that she and her colleagues “look at everything through a lens of adaptability – what’s going to let us be in the best position no matter what the future throws at us. And when you’re thinking about that, one of the first things you do is eliminate energy waste.”
She explains why she feels mandates aren’t necessary to drive Michigan’s momentum toward more renewable energy sources.
And she provides an update on the analysis underway on the safety of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. Brader also tells Heinze about the new Clean Energy Manufacturing Roadmap, too.
Greening of the Great Lakes airs inside MSU Today Sunday afternoons at 4:00 on AM 870.