Coalition of America’s Best-Known Companies Endorses Michigan’s Proposal 3

BOSTON, October 15, 2012 /3BL Media/ – Three weeks before Election Day, BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy) today announced its support for Michigan’s Proposal 3, which would require at least 25 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2025.

A project of Ceres, BICEP is a coalition of major American companies including Ben & Jerry’s, KB Home, The North Face, and Stonyfield Farm. BICEP member companies together employ more than 4,000 people in Michigan while also purchasing hundreds of millions of kilowatt-hours of renewable power across the nation each year.

“Proposal 3 is a major step in the right direction for clean energy policy, and that’s why business leaders are encouraging voters to support it on Election Day,” said Anne Kelly, co-director of Ceres’s public policy program and director of BICEP. “Strong, clear policies like Proposal 3 encourage utilities to invest in renewable energy, which will create jobs and stimulate the local economy.” 

Proposal 3 is well aligned with BICEP’s Principles, which recommend that 20 percent of the nation’s electricity be generated by renewable energy sources by 2020, and 30 percent by 2030. The proposal also includes cost-controlling measures to ensure that renewable power will be affordable for homes and businesses across the state. In fact, Michigan’s Public Service Commission recently found that building new renewable power generation was actually less expensive per megawatt-hour than building new coal-fired power.

Renewable power presents additional benefits for the state of Michigan. Ceres’s recent report Practicing Risk-Aware Electricity Regulation found that wind and solar power resources are among the lowest-risk electricity generation resources because unlike coal, natural gas or nuclear-powered plants, renewable power sources are not subject to the same risks of shifting fuel costs, extensive construction delays and access to water supplies, among other concerns.

About BICEP

BICEP is an advocacy coalition of businesses committed to working with policy makers to pass meaningful energy and climate legislation enabling a rapid transition to a low-carbon, 21st century economy – an economy that will create new jobs and stimulate economic growth while stabilizing our planet’s fragile climate. BICEP is a project of Ceres. www.ceres.org/bicep

About Ceres

Ceres is an advocate for sustainability leadership.  Ceres mobilizes a powerful coalition of investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable business practices and solutions to build a healthy global economy. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of 100 institutional investors with collective assets totaling more than $10 trillion.

For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org