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Ballot Effort Ending As Utilities Pledge Cleaner Energy

Wind Turbines
Pixabay Creative Commons

A group seeking to boost Michigan's renewable energy requirement says it won't move forward with a ballot initiative after Michigan's dominant utilities agreed to accelerate plans to produce cleaner energy.

Consumers Energy and DTE Energy announced Friday they're targeting at least a 50 percent "clean energy goal" by 2030 with renewable energy investments and energy efficiency improvements.

The group Clean Energy, Healthy Michigan now says it won't submit the more than 350,000 signatures it collected.

The clean energy ballot drive sought to require electric providers to increase the power they produce from wind and other renewable sources to 30 percent by 2030.

Jackson-based Consumers Energy and Detroit-based DTE Energy say they've announced plans in the past year to reduce carbon emissions by more than 80 percent in the coming decades.

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