Marathon legislative sessions to pass clean energy bill draw ire from Michigan Republican lawmakers
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Last week's clean energy bill package passed the Michigan House after a session that lasted more than 10 hours.
It was a work day that one Republican lawmaker called "torture," but Democrats say it was worth the work.
"I think we were in session like 30 hours in two days," said State Rep. Angela Rigas. "It was completely unnecessary. Absolutely unnecessary. They're not organized. They don't they do not have it together. They don't know how to effectively govern."
The clean energy bill package sets new requirements like mandating energy companies to generate 50% of their energy through renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2040, plus new laws for the Michigan Public Service Commission and energy waste reductions, among others.
"I'm not against solar at all," Rigas said. "However, I believe that that's something that collectively should be decided by the local government and the residents of the communities. We saw certain Democrats being pulled into the back. We saw a couple of the Democrats crying, absolutely crying, on the House floor. One Democrat was wearing a blood pressure cuff. One Democrat, we were told, had been throwing up. And where's the compassion for their caucus?"
But State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who also serves as the Speaker Pro Tem in the Michigan House, says she attributes the frustrations to how late lawmakers had to stay.
"I don't know if anyone was crying during that," she said. "I do know that there was an outburst earlier. You know, I think that folks were tired. I think that there was a lot of really big legislation that we were moving last week."
Pohutsky said seeing the legislation get passed last week made the long work days worth it.
"Look, it is tiring as it can be, and as long as those days are, being able to go back to the district and talk to people about the work that we're accomplishing, it makes all of it worth it in the end," she said.
