Michigan must aim to become not just the Alternative Energy leader of American but rather the ENERGY leader of America. As President Obama and Nobel Prize winner/Energy Secretary Chu have stated numerous times, our energy future must include clean coal and nuclear power. Because Michigan is a peninsula with relatively little oil or coal resources - compared to the rest of the Midwest - it must act smarter to ensure a low cost and reliable energy future. As governor, Mike Cox will offer tax incentives and a positive regulatory environment for construction of clean coal and nuclear facilities. Cox will work with utility companies, labor, and investors to ensure that plant applications proceed without excessive red tape or delay.

Mike Cox was instrumental in resolving the licensing dispute concerning Consumers Energy's application to build a new $2 billion clean coal plant in Essexville, just outside Bay City. This project will employ 1800 skilled trades during construction and hundreds of permanent workers while reducing Consumers Energy's carbon footprint. We must upgrade our current aging, dirty plants with newer, cleaner, more efficient ones - and reap benefits from the jobs that come from building those plants as well.

With rising energy costs and increased demand, Michigan needs to capitalize on any advantage it has to lower energy costs and provide alternative energy sources. Industrialists like T. Boone Pickens believe we should use incentives to leverage our domestic advantages in alternative energies. By encouraging investments in drilling, transportation, and storage technologies and expanding existing tax incentives for research and commercialization, Michigan will become a leader in providing numerous alternative energies including clean coal and nuclear energy.

Given the national mandates from the Obama Administration, Michigan should provide consumers relief from higher taxes for hybrid/alternative fueled cars. Vehicle sales tax and registration fees are based on sales price. Because alternative fueled cars are priced higher than traditional automobiles, consumers pay higher state taxes and fees creating a natural disincentive against hybrids. As Governor, Mike Cox will eliminate tax and fee disincentives on hybrid and alternative-fueled cars for consumers.

By providing tax and fee relief that allow consumers to pay no more for a hybrid or alternative fueled car than a traditional car, consumers can choose to purchase an alternative fueled car without penalty.

Unreasonably long permitting processes increase costs to utilities - and their customers - while keeping Michigan from becoming the cutting edge in energy technology. For example, recently LS Power pulled a proposal for a coal plant in Midland because of the State's unreasonable and uncertain permitting process. Consumers Energy's Essexville plant in Bay County - a $2 billion investment - waited a year and a half for its permit hearing. This level of bureaucratic red-tape results in higher energy rates, lost jobs, and stifles investment and innovation in Michigan. As Governor, Mike Cox will streamline the permitting process to ensure new plants and technologies happen without compromising oversight, regulation, and sound scientific review.

As Governor, Mike Cox will review any state standard that exceeds the federal standard to ensure Michigan's standard is fact based and scientifically defensible. Michigan's ability to become a leader in the development of America's energy future will require standards that are nimble and science-based. A first step is to review any standard that exceeds the federal standard to ascertain Michigan's standard is, in fact, science and fact-based.