Weird Wednesday already? Nope. Huge piles of ice were pushed by NE winds into homes along Linwood Beach (just north of Bay City), forcing evacuations and causing damage. Linwood Beach residents return to find ice piled around, inside and atop their homes from the Bay City Times begins:

"I was making a grocery list in the kitchen and the next thing you know, we had this," said Angie Hughes, nodding at the ice resting inside her kitchen.

"Once we saw the first two piles of ice coming over the seawall, we just ran," Steve Hughes said Monday, returning to assess the damage. "I just remember hearing the kitchen window explode and the kitchen table getting thrown back.

"It was just incredible to see. It's got to be about 50 tons of ice that came up here in less than a few minutes."

It has some great photos from this latest ice incursion from Saginaw Bay and also from a similar incident in 1946 when Lake Huron ice devastated homes along the bay.

One thing I can tell you is you
got to be free by sgs_1019

A new report titled Michigan's Offshore Wind Potential from the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University says that Michigan has the potential to become a big player in offshore wind energy:

The preliminary analysis finds that Michigan's portion of the Great Lakes has the capacity to produce 321,936 Megawatts of electricity from wind energy, a portion of which could be developed once depth, technology, view and environmental concerns are considered. Michigan's onshore wind potential was previously estimated at approximately 16,500 megawatts. The information provided by the new LPI report shows much more substantial opportunities for offshore wind energy.

"This result has the potential to elevate Michigan's wind energy profile nationally and internationally because the resource available is significant," said Dr Soji Adelaja, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor and director of the Land Policy Institute. "Michigan is one of few states with the opportunity to generate wind power from its offshore areas."

By way of comparison, a brand-new coal plant (such as the one proposed for Midland) would produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 megawatts and a nuclear plant being considered for Detroit area would produce 1500 megawatts.

Speaking of coal plants, Jim Dulzo of the Michigan Land Use Institute notes in Wind Power Is Officialy Cheaper that according to none other than the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the price of new coal-fired power is now higher than the price of wind power due to the increasing costs to extract and transport coal plus the unknown cost of coming CO2 regulations. Here's a link to the FERC's presentation (PDF) and here's part of what Jim says about the implications:

FERC makes the same argument-and similar cost projections-that Tom Sanzillo, an investment banking and utility regulation veteran, made for electricity generated by Wolverine Power Cooperative’s proposed “Clean Energy Venture.” Mr. Sanzillo concluded that building two 300 MW coal- and petroleum coke-burning power plants next to Rogers City was a very risky idea that would more than double local electric rates.

When will Michigan's political leaders get this? Governor Granholm refuses to talk about the eight new coal plants proposed for Michigan-other than claiming there’s nothing she can do. Lansing lawmakers water down or hamstring the renewable energy and energy efficiency proposals the governor touts, proposals that would create lots of jobs and save us some money.

And the same crowd, Ms. Granholm included, endorses protecting DTE Energy and Consumers Energy from customer competition, guaranteeing that innovative green-energy companies head for Ohio, Minnesota, or other Midwest states that already have smart energy policies.

There's a bunch more to read there, and it left me wondering - as the October wind howls outside - exactly what would be driving Michigan to invest in plants that will be with us for 50+ years and need to be fed by imported coal and uranium when we've got this wind thing going on.

What do you think?