At the National Association for Pupil Transportation Annual Conference and Trade Show (ACTS) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, keynote speaker Darryl Bellamy inspired the audience with creating transparency around common fears and how to move forward from fear paralysis.
Bellamy said during his Nov. 1 presentation that over his career he has collected 75,000 fears handwritten by individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and careers. He explained that across the ages, from 8 years old to 80, the fears seem to fall into the same categories. He led attendees through multiple interactive exercises to analyze their individual reactions to fear.
After the first exercise, where attendees closed their eyes to visualize what thoughts the word “fear” triggered, Bellamy explained that generally people have a negative feeling when it comes to fear. However, he said, fear is not the enemy. Inaction is. Fear is a natural response, a check-engine light to signal us that we are feeling discomfort or unsafe and is something we need to survive as humans. But it cannot stop us from pushing through.
“What I truly want is for you to not feel fearless, but to fear a little less,” said Bellamy.
The symbolic fire where attendees placed their unspoken fears
The next exercise had each member of the audience write down their greatest fears on pieces of paper and then place them in a symbolic fire on the stage. Bellamy read aloud some of these written responses, noting the common themes and statements made. These included fear of how we are perceived, fear of not accomplishing goals, fear of appearing incompetent, fear of not being good enough, fear of losing a job or income, fear of making mistakes and fear of letting others down.
Volunteers from the audience stood up to voice their biggest fears, and Bellamy asked the rest of the attendees to affirm their agreement with each fear by snapping their fingers. This demonstration, he said, proves that while fear can feel very isolating, oftentimes we are facing similar fears as do the people around us.
One attendee said, “My biggest fear is that someone is going to outwork me, that they’re smarter than me.” Another said “People who know me see me as strong, powerful but inside I feel like an imposter. I’m so scared, so anxious.” Many of the attendees nodded in agreement with the statement, “I fear that I’m not being an effective enough leader for my team,” and “I fear that my best won’t be enough.”
“You’re never alone in your journey. We just don’t talk about it enough. The fears we hide are the ones that connect us the most. Don’t keep it in your head, talk with someone about it, you give it less your power and we can work through it a little bit easier,” said Bellamy.
Bellamy said the first step is to “trace” or identify the fear, name it and break out of the “fear loop,” which he defined by feelings of stress, helplessness, distrust, dread, panic and anxiety. The next step is to “embrace” by managing your response and taking action.
He explained his 5-Second Rule. “When a thought comes into our head, we usually talk ourselves in or out of it in five seconds.” He used the metaphor of a retreat, where individuals were on a high-ropes course, and one woman was too afraid to let go of the rope to get back off the course. Bellamy said he counted out loud from five to one, and her instinct helped her let go. He explained that when we’re in a fear loop, our bodies often show physical signs of tension. Making a small change, such as deep breathing or smiling, can unlock the ability to take action. This action, Bellamy explained, may not always be perfect, but it promotes learning and growth as opposed to inaction.
Bellamy gave his list of the five questions he encourages attendees to ask themselves in a moment of fear:
1. What exactly am I afraid of?
2. What if it goes well?
3. If I failed, how would I grow?
4. What would be my first steps?
5. What regret would I have if I didn’t take action?
The final step, said Bellamy, is “grace,” being kind to yourself and bouncing back when things don’t go perfectly. He said reminds himself that we’re all on the same journey of life iwith the statement, “I made the best decision with the information and who I was at the time.”
Often, the uncertainty and the regret of inaction is what will cause more stress in the long run, he said. He referenced a study that asked subjects to write down all the things they were worried about and then track those events over the next 30 days. The study found that only 15 percent of the worries came to fruition while 79 percent turned out better than expected. He ended with words of encouragement. “You’ve survived 100 percent of your bad days. The goal is not perfection, it’s progress,” he shared.
Keynote speaker Darryl Bellamy, wearing tie, poses with, left, school bus driver Crystal Foster, and, right, bus monitor Joclyn Johnson and transportation director David Poag from Spartanburg School District 6 in South Carolina. Johnson and Foster were recognized at NAPT ACTS with the Heroism Award, sponsored by Blue Bird, for saving three children from a house fire while driving their route.
School Transportation News was on-site at the National Association for Pupil Transportation ACTS in Grand Rapids, Michigan Oct. 31 – Nov. 4. Browse photos from the conference and trade show, including the induction of new board members, elected officials, Hall of Fame members, annual awards and industry sessions.
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National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) Executive Director and CEO Molly McGee-Hewitt addresses attendees at NAPT ACTS 2025
Watch the highly anticipated public safety announcement from the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation (MAPT) in partnership with ROUSH CleanTech, highlighting awareness of illegal passing of stopped school buses. The video premiered for National School Bus Safety Week and features racecar driver Ryan Preece at the RFK Racing Museum in Concord, North Carolina.
Reading Time: 6minutesOn a summer morning in July, scientists with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians collect adolescent whitefish from the pond where they were raised. These young fish will be released into Nunns Creek near Hessel, Mich., with hopes they will grow to adulthood in Lake Huron. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter here.
Western religions say it worked once. Now, some are exploring a Noah’s Ark strategy to save whitefish from collapse in lakes Michigan and Huron.
Once abundant in these lakes, stocks have plunged so sharply that scientists fear entire bloodlines could vanish within years. With no cure in sight for the mussel invasion that has made the big lakes so unlivable, some want to move whitefish to inland lakes or ponds, where they would live as refugees until conditions improve.
“We need to make sure that, 20 years from now, if the lake is ready again, we can return the descendants of fish that came from here,” said Jason Smith, a scientist with the Bay Mills Indian Community who is winning some early interest in his “genetic rescue” strategy.
Modeled in part on a successful pond stocking program in the Upper Peninsula, the idea echoes a global trend. As human-caused harms push millions of Earth’s species to the brink, interventions that once may have seemed far-fetched are becoming routine.
“We’re going to see more of this,” said Gregory Kaebick, a senior research scholar at the Hastings Center for Bioethics, a nonprofit think tank based in Garrison, New York.
“The extinctions right now are almost entirely due to human intervention in the first place. So there’s a sense that if we’ve caused the problem, then we ought to be contributing to trying to fix it.”
The pond rescue idea is just one among many to save whitefish, none of which are sure bets. But there’s evidence it could work: For several years, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians has reported success raising small numbers of whitefish in ponds, then releasing them into lakes when they are larger.
“It’s more hands-off and the fish are exposed to the environment,” said Rusty Aikens, the tribe’s fisheries enhancement coordinator.
Expanding upon that methodology to keep the fish in ponds indefinitely would require millions of dollars and coordination among the tribal, state and federal agencies that co-manage the Great Lakes fishery.
From left, Matt Allard operates a small boat as Noah Blackie and DJ Smith pull fyke nets from a pond near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., as part of an experimental stocking program operated by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
Adolescent whitefish are poured into a bucket for transport to Nunns Creek near Hessel, Mich., where they would be released to spend the rest of their days in Lake Huron. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
From left, Noah Blackie, Matt Allard and DJ Smith, members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Fisheries Program, pull a fyke net into a boat to collect whitefish from a pond near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
But the idea speaks to desperation to prevent a loss that would not only corrode a key piece of Great Lakes culture but ripple through the food web and regional fishing economy.
“We think of Atikameg as the canary in the coal mine,” said Smith, using the Anishinaabe word for whitefish. “They’re the ones struggling first, but we would be foolish to think they’re the only ones.”
Whitefish in exile
Whitefish are endangered by tiny quagga and zebra mussels, natives of Eastern Europe that came to the Great Lakes in freighters and were first spotted here in 1989. They now blanket the bottom of four out of five Great Lakes, siphoning nutrients and plankton and leaving behind crystal-clear water with barely anything for whitefish to eat.
Scientists are searching for a solution, but a breakthrough could be decades away, and the effort is poorly funded compared to other Great Lakes threats.
Though whitefish remain stable in Saginaw Bay, lower Green Bay and Lake Superior, scientists fear the mussels could eventually harm those fish, too. Even if not, shrinking a deep gene pool down to a few smaller populations creates a risk of lost fitness and inbreeding. And tribes leading the whitefish rescue effort say it’s about more than ecology.
The fish are kin, deserving protection in exchange for the millenia they have spent sustaining human diets.
“If they’re extirpated, or if they’re diminished such that we don’t have access to them, we’d be lesser as a community,” said Doug Craven, natural resources director for the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians.
Advocates of pond-rearing view it as a cheaper, more humane and more promising alternative to raising fish in hatcheries, where they are often packed into concrete raceways or plastic tanks that require lots of electricity and constant monitoring.
From left, Kat Bentgen and Amy Schneider weigh buckets of whitefish collected from a pond near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
Adolescent whitefish are piped into Nunns Creek near Hessel, Mich., in hopes that they’ll survive to adulthood in the Great Lakes. (Josh Boland / Bridge Michigan)
Studies also show that fish raised in these tightly controlled environments have less knack for surviving in the wild.
For the past five years, the Sault Tribe has been raising small numbers of whitefish in ponds near Sault Ste. Marie (225,000 this year) until they are several months old, at which point they’re trucked to the north shore of lakes Huron and Michigan. It’s a workaround, meant to protect them from the zooplankton shortage that kills hatchlings in the Great Lakes.
Unlike hatchery-raised fish, these fish must learn to feed themselves, steer clear of predators and deal with changing weather and other variables. The mortality rate in ponds is higher than in hatcheries. But Aikens said that’s not necessarily a bad thing:
“The ones that do make it to this point? They’re fitter,” he said as Sault Tribe scientists netted the 3-inch fingerlings in preparation for transport to Lake Huron.
The trouble is, the stocking program is tiny. And it will take years to know if it’s working. Young whitefish disappear into the deep water and typically aren’t seen again until they return ashore to spawn years later.
“There’s a lot of hurdles they need to overcome between now and then,” Aikens said.
So from Smith’s perspective, there’s a need for a backup plan.
Encouraged by the promise of pond-rearing, he began talking with U.S. Forest Service officials last year about finding some ponds in the Hiawatha National Forest where whitefish could hunker down indefinitely, perhaps for multiple generations, until the mussel invasion subsides.
“Time is of the essence to see if there’s consensus that we should do this or some other preservation measure,” Smith said. “It’s not simple, it’s not inexpensive, but it might be really important.”
Jason Smith, a biologist with the Bay Mills Indian Community, sees hope for whitefish if humans are willing to intervene before it’s too late. His idea: Moving some fish out of the lower Great Lakes and into inland ponds, where they and their offspring would remain until it’s safe to return home. (Kelly House / Bridge Michigan)
Officials with the Little Traverse Bay Band are open to partnering on such a project, while state regulators and The Nature Conservancy have also shown some interest.
One barrier to more coordinated action: There is no comprehensive rehabilitation plan for whitefish, unlike lake trout and sturgeon. Tribal, state and federal experts have begun discussing whether it’s time to write one, said Steve Lenart, a fish biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
“I don’t think anybody’s thinking that it’s not a pretty urgent topic,” Lenart said, but “coordination and collaboration — those things take time.”
Get used to it
If circumventing species loss by moving fish to a whole new environment sounds radical, get used to it.
Human forces including habitat loss, climate change and the spread of invasive species are pushing nature to the brink, forcing emergency rescues and heartbreaking decisions about what not to save.
Life on Earth is vanishing at a rate unmatched in human history, with some 28% of species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature at risk. In Michigan, state officials have designated 407 species as threatened or endangered.
“We are in an extinction crisis, no question about it,” said Budhan Pukazhenthi, a scientist with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “But the challenge is also, what can we do to either slow it down or to completely stop it?”
Groups like his have cloned endangered animals. Governments are freezing animals’ tissue samples “just in case” and establishing massive seed libraries like the “doomsday vault” on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway. Zoos around the globe — including in Michigan — are breeding and releasing rare animals into the wild.
Still, it won’t be feasible to save everything. Some officials have begun using a framework known as Resist, Accept Direct to help them decide when and how to intervene.
“We know these systems are changing,” said Abigail Lynch, a scientist with the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center. “We can either acknowledge these difficult issues now and make more informed decisions, or we can ignore them and let those decisions be made for us.”
Time is running short for many of the lower lakes’ whitefish. In some areas, almost no hatchlings have survived to adulthood for nearly two decades. Most whitefish left in those waters are grandparents that will soon die of old age.
In Little Traverse Bay, the average whitefish caught in fishing nets is more than 20 years old. It’s growing difficult to even catch enough fish for experiments that aim to save this genetically distinct population.
Smith knows some might see the pond rescue idea as extreme. But to him, risking the fish’s disappearance from the lower lakes is far moreso. Money, time, uncertainty about whether it will work — he sees those all as worthwhile sacrifices to save an icon of the Great Lakes.
With one caveat:
“If we do it, does that absolutely obligate us to bust our ass to fix the lakes?” he said. “One-hundred percent.”
LIVONIA, Mich.— Boys and Girls Club of Martin County continues to prove the long-term value and reliability of propane bus transportation by operating the original Blue Bird Vision bus equipped with ROUSH CleanTech propane fuel system. This first of its kind propane school bus has continually operated in the organization’s daily operation since 2014.
“Our decision to invest in propane technology stemmed from our commitment to environmental responsibility and economic efficiency,” said David Jones, facility manager of Florida’s Boys and Girls Club of Martin County. “We purchased our first propane bus from Florida Transportation Systems in 2014, and it has served as a critical component of our mission to provide after-school and summer programs for area youth.”
The 2012 model year bus, which first served as a demo bus for FTS, has accumulated 65,000 miles while maintaining performance. Due to the success of the first bus, the Boys and Girls Club purchased a second Blue Bird Vision Propane bus in 2015. Both propane buses operate daily, transporting up to 70 students per trip from local schools to club facilities throughout Martin County.
“Since the inception of ROUSH CleanTech 15 years ago, we’ve been working to create safe, reliable and environmentally friendly propane systems for school buses,” said Todd Mouw, executive vice president of ROUSH CleanTech. “Seeing the enduring success of the Boys and Girls Club’s propane buses is a testament to the durability and value of propane technology in school transportation.”
The Boys and Girls Club maintains its propane buses through general maintenance protocols, with mechanical work performed at FTS. Propane fuel costs remain competitive, with on-site fueling provided through a contract with Palmdale Como.
Including this first propane bus off the production line, there are more than 23,000 propane school buses equipped with ROUSH CleanTech fuel systems operating across North America. These propane buses are saving school districts and operators more than $100 million annually in fuel costs while also significantly reducing harmful emissions for children, drivers and surrounding communities.
About ROUSH CleanTech: ROUSH CleanTech, an industry leader of advanced clean transportation solutions, is a division of the global engineering company Roush Enterprises. ROUSH CleanTech develops propane autogas technology for medium-duty Ford commercial vehicles and school buses. With more than 50,000 vehicles on the road, the Livonia, Michigan-based company delivers economical, emissions-reducing options for fleets across North America. Learn more at ROUSHcleantech.com or by calling 800.59.ROUSH.
The National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) election is fast approaching. The candidates come from various backgrounds in student transportation and have been nominated based on their dedicated contributions to the industry.
The president-elect candidates are: Melody Coniglio, director of transportation for West Geauga Local Schools in Ohio and current NAPT Region 3 director; Karim Johnson, director of student transportation at Dorchester County School District Four in South Carolina; and Todd Silverthorn, supervisor of transportation services at Kettering City School District in Ohio.
Keith Kaup, director of transportation at Pearland Independent School District in Texas, is the current president elect and assumes the president role this fall, succeeding Teena Mitchell of South Carolina.
Coniglio started her career as a school bus driver in 1994 and since has served in various transportation leadership positions in Ohio districts. Johnson was named a STN Rising Superstar in 2020 and holds multiple state and NAPT certifications. Silverthorn is the current vice president and a recent past-president of the Ohio Association for Pupil Transportation. He has worked in student transportation for over 20 years.
Running unopposed for Region 1 director is Marc Medina, supervisor of transportation at Farmingdale School District in New York. Medina is the president of the New York Association for Pupil Transportation and has been in the industry for 15 years.
Dawnett Wright, director of transportation at Peninsula School District in Washington, is the sole candidate for Region 5 director. Also serving as the president of the Washington Association of Pupil Transportation, Wright has spent over three decades in the Pacific Northwest region, first as a school bus driver, then trainer and now director.
Maritza Valentin, national account manager at wheelchair securement provider AMF-Bruns of America, is running for re-election as affiliate member director. Valentin trains professionals to properly secure students with disabilities who ride in wheelchairs and advocates for American Disabilities Act compliance.
For the positions where only one candidate was nominated, NAPT stated that write-in candidates will be accepted during the voting period.
The NAPT election will run from 8 a.m. EST Tuesday, Sept. 30, through 5 p.m. EST Wednesday, Oct. 1. The elected members will be sworn in at NAPT ACTS Saturday, Nov. 1, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information on the candidates and their positions, go to www.napt.org/napt-candidates. Voter eligibility and voting details can be found at www.napt.org/napt-election-faq.
Katrina Morris has wanted to create an illegal passing public safety announcement involving NASCAR for a long time. It wasn’t until she engaged ROUSH CleanTech that her dream became a reality.
With ROUSH’s connections to and history in professional car racing, Morris, the executive director of Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation, explained that in just a month and a half after starting discussions the PSA was in the can, so to speak. MAPT and ROUSH CleanTech partnered on the campaign, set to air during National School Bus Safety Week on Oct. 20. The video will be sent to all national associations with the hope they share it with local media and post it on social media.
The PSA was filmed on Sept. 10 at the RFK Racing Museum in Concord, North Carolina. Participants of STN EXPO East toured the facility last year. In the video, NASCAR driver Ryan Preece speeds past several situations but tells the camera that even he has time to stop for a school bus.
“I could not have envisioned a better way for this to have happened,” Morris said, adding that if it wasn’t for ROUSH’s participation the video wouldn’t have come together. She noted that ROUSH was already thinking of other drivers to expand to the project with.
“It warms my heart because they’re not just thinking, ‘We did this, so now we’re done,’” added Morris. “[They] want to expand. What can we do to make this grow? What can we do to help this issue that we’re all having and we’re all facing.”
Morris said she was able to speak with Preece about the dangers of illegal passing and the importance of the message he’s sending to motorists everywhere.
“Children’s lives are in danger every day,” Morris recalled telling Preece. “And he looked at me, and I said see, I got your attention … You guys doing this for us and lending us your voice is hopefully going to help us to get that message out even further.”
In addition to ROUSH and Blue Bird, which provided the school bus, MAPT obtained sponsorships from the Ohio Association of Pupil Transportation, the School Transportation Association of Indiana, Michigan school bus contractor Dean Transportation, the National School Transportation Association, the National Association of Pupil Transportation, First Light Safety Products, National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, BusRight, and Set Seg insurance company. Morris noted all sponsor logos were added to the bottom of the school bus to show appreciation.
“Ensuring the safety of our children is a responsibility we all share,” Todd Mouw, executive vice president of ROUSH CleanTech, said. “For ROUSH CleanTech, being part of this school bus safety campaign is our way of reminding drivers that stopping for a school bus isn’t just the law — it’s a commitment to protecting young lives. Together with NASCAR and Blue Bird, we can broaden our audience reach to spread awareness and make our roads safer for every child.”
Photos of the PSA filming, courtesy of Katrina Morris.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. –Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) started off the new school year by welcoming students back safely thanks to the support from its transportation provider, Durham School Services. As part of its back-to-school preparation training, the Durham team refined and practiced various safety and driving skills and performed practice runs of their routes to ensure familiarity and efficiency. In total, Durham runs 112 routes and transports over 5,000 students to and from the school every day for the district.
“The Ann Arbor Public Schools is pleased to be working with Durham School Services who provides the district’s general education and special education bus service. The management staff, led by manager Renae Pickel and her team, partner with us to provide transportation services to over 5,000 students,” said Liz Margolis, Executive Director of School Safety & District Operations, Ann Arbor Public Schools. “The Durham team also works with us to ensure students are scheduled for busing in the most efficient manner and to assess the routes during the first few weeks of school for any improvements in service. Further, they understand our families and the expected level of service. We look forward to a smooth 2025-2026 school year for transportation.”
In addition to celebrating the successful start to the school year, AAPS and Durham are also celebrating a three-year extension to its already decades-long partnership. The new partnership between AAPS and Durham extends through 2028 and plans are currently underway to transition the school’s fleet of buses to electric vehicles (EV).
Durham was one of five providers that submitted a proposal in response to AAPS’ request for proposals and was recommended by the review committee after careful and thorough consideration. In the recommendation letter, which is publicly accessible, it was noted that, “Over the contract term, Durham focused on student safety, on-time performance, and customer service, with an expertly maintained fleet of updated buses. The Durham Ann Arbor operation has consistently been awarded the Michigan State Police Certificate of Excellence for a 100% pass rate for all school bus safety inspections.”
“Maintaining and building a decade-long partnership, as you can imagine, takes significant dedication, effort, and hard work,” said Renae Pickel, General Manager, Durham School Services. “Thanks to our team members, we’ve not only been given the opportunity to continue serving AAPS for another three years but also had our best school start-up in years. We had a driver in every seat covering all 112 routes and all routes ran successfully. That is such an immense achievement, and I can’t help but feel a huge sense of pride for what my team has accomplished through their diligence and immeasurable efforts. Lastly, on behalf of the team, I’d like to express how truly appreciative we are for the school’s trust and recognition of our team’s commitment to always providing the utmost safe, dependable service to their students and community.”
About Durham School Services: As an industry-leading student transportation provider, Durham School Services and its sister brands, Stock Transportation and Petermann Bus, are dedicated to the safety of our students and People. Collectively, for more than 100 years, we have been committed to Excellence and upholding our mission of getting students to school safely, on time, and ready to learn. Through this mission and a grassroots approach to our operations, Durham School Services and its sister brands have earned recognition as a trusted transportation provider among our Customers and the Communities they serve.
A deep dive into the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services’ 13th National Stop Arm Violation Count as well as updates on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Funding program and electric bus manufacturer LION.
Hear from Katrina Morris, who is the transportation director for West Shore Educational Service District in Michigan, executive director of the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation, and this year’s Peter J. Grandolfo Memorial Award of Excellence winner. Her Proactive Response Training for School Bus Drivers is being taught in 33 states, she’s leveraging sports partnerships for student transportation visibility, and she’s dedicated to safety training for students.
RENO, Nev. — Katrina Morris, the executive director of the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation, is the 18th recipient of the Peter J. Gandolfo Memorial Award of Excellence.
The award, sponsored by Q’Straint/SureLok, was presented to Morris on July 14, during the STN EXPO West opening session by Linda Grandolfo, Peter’s widow. Linda keeps Peter’s legacy alive by telling his story every year, enlightening newcomers and reminding frequent attendees of his impact on school transportation.
“He would want all of you to make some connections at this conference, meet some people that you’ve never met before,” Linda said. “Over the years, he learned, he grew and he increased his circle of friends in this industry. It’s comforting to know that I have been giving this award to so many deserving professionals, and then I read about our 2025 winner, —[Peter’s] impact in the field of student transportation remains to this day with so many of you today. We are actually fortunate to have some of our past winners with us.”
Among the past winners in attendance were Alexandra Robinson (2017), industry consultant and previous New York Director of Transportation; Pamela McDonald (2021), retired director of transportation at Orange County Public Schools in California; and Julie Hrebicek (2023), Magnolia Independent School District in Texas.
From left to right: Alexandra Robinson, industry consultant and previous New York Director of Transportation; Linda Grandolfo, Katrina Morris, Pamela McDonald, Julie Hrebicek and Lisa Nippolt.
Linda Grandolfo added that she’s proud of the past recipients and their dedication to yellow school buses. “The responsibility that each of you accepts every day, no matter your area of student transportation, is something you greatly valued,” Linda said, adding that Morris is a leader in student transportation.
She noted that Morris is respected across Michigan for work as director of transportation for the West Shore Community School District, which primarily serves K-8 students with disabilities. She recently transitioned to a consultant role with the district to become the full time MAPT executive director.
Morris is also recognized in her state and beyond for her dedication to safety training and best practices. She is a former president of the MAPT and was instrumental in developing statewide school bus driver security training, the impetus for a state law, since 2002.
Her start in the industry began over 20 years ago as a school bus driver and dispatcher.
“Our 2025 winner, much like Peter is a constant learner who loves building relationships with kids and actually loves their job, she takes their job very seriously and is most proud of getting an $810,000 grant for school bus safety and security, which is now mandated in Michigan,” Linds said.
The Michigan school bus driver security training program is now taught in 35 states. “I watched the video as I was preparing for this speech. It is incredibly powerful,” Linda said, adding that after a six-year battle with the state of Michigan, the Michigan House passed a school bus safety package in 2022.
“It’s an honor and a pleasure every year to present the Peter Grandolfo award to the winners,” said Lisa Nippolt, the western region manager of Q’Straint’s school bus and paratransit market. “This award is really about dedication. It’s about unwavering commitment to ensure that all the children you know are safely transported. And for that, we are immensely grateful to everyone in this room, but congratulations and big thanks to [Morris] for everything that you do.”
Upon accepting the award, Morris said that she was just talking about the Grandolfo award Sunday night and the impact Peter had on the industry.
“To be honored by your husband and his award, I can’t tell you how much that means,” she said. “I’m usually not short for words, but I’m just shocked right now. And you guys thought enough of me that in what I do — it’s all of our passion. It was Peter’s passion too, and we’re just glad that we were able to share that together. So, thank you guys for this award.”
Linda Grandolfo, Katrina Morris and Lisa Nippolt. (Photo by Vincent Rios Creative.)
Morris’ Impact on the Industry
Morris has been in the industry for 21 years, starting as a school bus substitute driver. From there, she moved into an office position, which is where her career trajectory took off.
“My passion was really for what people didn’t know about what we do, and it was like, these bus drivers are so phenomenal in what they do for our kids and how big of a role they really play in their lives, and people don’t realize that,” she told STN after the announcement.
She said the perception is that anyone can drive a school bus, but Morris noted that you can’t teach an applicant how to love and care for kids. “I just wanted my passion for that part of it to be heard and for people to really tap into what it is that we offer for our students,” she said.
Noting laws, rules and regulations, i’s the desire to keep improving the driver experience and student safety that keeps Morris engaged with the industry. “We’re all here for the students and their safety,” she said. “But at the same point, we have to remember that we have to get the drivers to where they have to be. We need to remain focused on the drivers and what they need as well as what the kids need. When we both work together in those conjunctions, then we wind up with beautiful outcomes.”
She said the industry is currently shifting its perception about school bus drivers by realizing they play a larger part of the overall district’s success. “I will always come back and fight for the kids and fight for our drivers and fight for what’s right and what they deserve,” she said.
And Morris continues to do just that. Following high profile school shootings, lockdown training became critical for schools. But she noted that school bus drivers were left out. When Morris heard that, she took it upon herself to work with city and county law enforcement as well as the emergency manager to write the curriculum for Proactive Response Training for School Bus Drivers, which has now gone nationwide.
Katrina Morris (middle) with fellow Michiganians. (Photo by Vincent Rios Creative.)
Her current project is a national campaign in conjunction with NASCAR, which she has been working on for the past five years. The goal is to release a commercial that shows a NASCAR driver and school bus on the same racetrack. The driver would see the school bus come stop and follow suit, saying something to the effect of, ‘Even I stop for the red flashing lights of a school bus to help protect all of our kids.’
“My voice is only so loud, but NASCAR has a loud voice, and they have a big target audience,” Morris said, adding that campaigns with people like NASCAR continue to elevate what a school bus driver does.
“It’s helping with the driver shortage to start elevating our people up to where they really need to be,” she said. “No, you may not need a degree, but you need a whole lot of training.”
A new contract between Kalamazoo, Michigan, and utility Consumers Energy signals a change in direction for the city’s clean energy strategy as it seeks to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Solar was seen as a pillar of the city’s plans when it declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set a goal of zeroing out carbon emissions by 2040. After spending years exploring its options, though, the Michigan city is tempering a vision for rooftop solar in favor of large, more distant solar projects built and owned by the utility. It’s not alone either, with Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Muskegon and other cities taking a similar approach.
“Folks want to see solar panels on parking lots and buildings, but there’s no way as a city we can accomplish our net-zero buildings just putting solar panels on a roof,” said Justin Gish, Kalamazoo’s sustainability planner. “Working with the utility seemed to make the most sense.”
Initially there was skepticism, Gish said — “environmentalists tend to not trust utilities and large corporate entities” — but the math just didn’t work out for going it alone with rooftop solar.
The city’s largest power user, the wastewater treatment station, has a pumping house with a roof of only 225 square feet. Kalamazoo’s largest city-owned roof, at the public service station, is 26,000 square feet. Spending an estimated $750,000 to cover that with solar would only provide 14% of the power that building uses annually — a financial “non-starter,” he said.
So the city decided to partner with Consumers Energy, joining a solar subscription program wherein Kalamazoo will tell Consumers how much solar energy it wants, starting in 2028, and the utility will use funds from its subscription fee to construct new solar farms, like a 250 MW project Consumers is building in Muskegon.
Under the 20-year contract, Kalamazoo will pay a set rate of 15.8 cents per kWh — 6.4 cents more than what it currently pays — for 43 million kWh of solar power per year. If electricity market rates rise, the city will save money, and Kalamazoo receives Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to help meet its energy goals.
The subscription is expected to eliminate about 80% of Kalamazoo’s emissions from electricity, Gish said. The electricity used to power streetlights and traffic signals couldn’t be covered since it is not metered. As the city acquires more electric vehicles — it currently has two — electricity demand may increase, but city leaders hope to offset any increases by improving energy efficiency of city buildings.
Consumers Energy spokesperson Matt Johnson said the company relies “in part” on funds from customers specifically to build solar, and considers it a better deal for cities than building it themselves, “which would be more costly for them, and they have to do their own maintenance.”
“We can do it in a more cost-effective way, we maintain it, they’re helping us fund it and do it in the right way, and those benefits get passed on to arguably everybody,” Johnson said.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, joined the subscription program at the same time as Kalamazoo. Corporate customers including 7-Eleven, Walmart and General Motors are part of the same Consumers Energy solar subscription program, as is the state of Michigan.
Costs and benefits
“There’s a growing movement of cities trying to figure out solar — ‘Yes we want to do this, it could save us money over time, but the cost is prohibitive,’” said John Farrell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Until the Inflation Reduction Act, cities couldn’t directly access federal tax credits. The direct-pay incentives under the IRA have simplified financing, Farrell said, but cities still face other financial and logistical barriers, such as whether they have sufficient rooftop space.
Advocates acknowledge deals with utilities may be the most practical way for budget-strapped cities to move the needle on clean energy, but they emphasize that cities should also strive to develop their own solar, and question whether utilities should charge more for clean power that is increasingly a cheaper option than fossil fuels.
“Our position is rooftop and distributed generation is best — it’s best for the customers, in this case the cities; it’s best for the grid, because you’re putting those resources directly on the grid where it’s needed most; and it’s best for the planet because it can deploy a lot faster,” said John Delurey, Midwest deputy director of the advocacy group Vote Solar. “I believe customers in general and perhaps cities in particular should exhaust all resources and opportunities for distributed generation before they start to explore utility-scale resources. It’s the lowest hanging fruit and very likely to provide the most bang for their buck.”
Utility-scale solar is more cost-effective per kilowatt, but Delurey notes that when a public building is large enough for solar, “you are putting that generation directly on load, you’re consuming onsite. Anything that is concurrent consumption or paired with a battery, you are getting the full retail value of that energy. That is a feature you can’t really beat no matter how good the contract is with some utility-scale projects that are farther away.”
Delurey also noted that Michigan law mandates all energy be from clean sources by 2040; and 50% by 2030. That means Consumers needs to be building or buying renewable power, whether or not customers pay extra for it.
“So there are diminishing returns [to a subscription deal] at that point,” Delurey said. “You better be getting a price benefit, because the power on their grid would be clean anyways.”
“Some folks are asking ‘Why do anything now? Just wait until Consumers cleans up the grid,’” Gish acknowledged. “But our purchase shows we have skin in the game.”
A complement to rooftop
In 2009, Milwaukee adopted a goal of powering 25% of city operations — excluding waterworks — with solar by 2025. The city’s Climate and Equity Plan adopted in 2023 also enshrined that goal.
For a decade, Milwaukee has been battling We Energies over the city’s plan to install rooftop solar on City Hall and other buildings through a third-party owner, Eagle Point Solar. The city sought the arrangement — common in many states — to tap federal tax incentives that a nonprofit public entity couldn’t reap. But We Energies argued that third party ownership would mean Eagle Point would be acting as a utility and infringing on We Energies’ territory. A lawsuit over Milwaukee’s plans with Eagle Point is still pending.
In 2018, We Energies launched a pilot solar program in Milwaukee known by critics as “rent a roof,” in which the utility leased rooftop space for its own solar arrays. Advocates and Milwaukee officials opposed the program, arguing that it encouraged the utility to suppress the private market or publicly-owned solar. In 2023, the state Public Service Commission denied the utility’s request to expand the program.
Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board opposed the rent-a-roof arrangement since it passed costs they viewed as unfair on to ratepayers. But Wisconsin CUB executive director Tom Content said the city’s current partnership with We Energies is different, since it is just the city, not ratepayers, footing the cost for solar that helps the city meet its goals.
Solar panels atop Milwaukee’s Central Library. Credit: City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee is paying about $84,000 extra per year for We Energies to build solar farms on a city landfill near the airport and outside the city limits in the town of Caledonia. The deal includes a requirement that We Energies hire underemployed or unemployed Milwaukee residents.
The Caledonia project is nearly complete, and will provide over 11 million kWh of energy annually, “enough to make 57 municipal police stations, fire stations, and health clinics 100% renewable electricity,” said Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office director Erick Shambarger.
The landfill project is slated to break ground in 2025. The two arrays will total 11 MW and provide enough power for 83 city buildings, including City Hall – where Milwaukee had hoped to do the rooftop array with Eagle Point.
Meanwhile Milwaukee is building its own rooftop solar on the Martin Luther King Jr. library and later other public buildings, and Shambarger said they will apply for direct pay tax credits made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act — basically eliminating the need for a third-party agreement.
“Utility-scale is the complement to rooftop,” said Shambarger. “They own it and maintain it, we get the RECs. It worked out pretty well. If you think about it from a big picture standpoint, to now have the utility offer a big customer like the city an option to source their power from renewable energy — that didn’t exist five years ago. If you were a big customer in Wisconsin five years ago, you really had no option except for buying RECs from who knows where. We worked hard with them to make sure we could see our renewable energy being built.”
We Energies already owns a smaller 2.25 MW solar farm on the same landfill, under a similar arrangement. Building solar on the landfill is less efficient than other types of land, since special mounting is needed to avoid puncturing the landfill’s clay cap, and the panels can’t turn to follow the sun. But Shambarger said the sacrifice is worth it to have solar within the city limits, on land useful for little else.
“We do think it’s important to have some of this where people can see it and understand it,” he said. “We also have the workforce requirements, it’s nice to have it close to home for our local workers.”
Madison is also pursuing a mix of city-owned distributed solar and utility-scale partnerships.
On Earth Day 2024, Madison announced it has installed 2 MW of solar on 38 city rooftops. But a utility-scale solar partnership with utility MGE is also crucial to the goal of 100% clean energy for city operations by 2030. Through MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider program, Madison helped pay for the 8 MW Hermsdorf Solar Fields on a city landfill, with 5 MW devoted to city operations and 3 MW devoted to the school district. The 53-acre project went online in 2022.
Farrell said such “all of the above” approaches are ideal.
“The lesson we’ve seen generally is the more any entity can directly own the solar project, the more financial benefit you’ll get,” he said. “Ownership comes with privileges, and with risks.
“Energy is in addition to a lot of other challenging issues that cities have to work on. The gold standard is solar on a couple public buildings with battery storage, so these are resiliency places if the grid goes down.”
Correction: Covering Kalamazoo’s public service station roof with solar panels would provide an estimated 14% of power used by that building. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the number.
Election Day yielded few bright spots for the transition to clean energy, but there was one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The city of nearly 120,000 voted 79 percent in favor of a measure to create a “sustainable energy utility” (SEU) that will supplement the existing grid and help residents shift to cleaner, more reliable energy.
With that overwhelming approval, city officials will now figure out the governance, staffing, and leadership of the new local utility. They have already begun outreach to residents interested in participating; 600 customers had registered by Tuesday afternoon. The plan is to assemble an initial tranche of 20 megawatts worth of demand, at which point Ann Arbor will finance the purchase and installation of solar panels, batteries, and energy-efficiency upgrades to serve those customers.
Installations — on homes, sheds, schools, libraries — could happen in the next 18 to 24 months, Mayor Christopher Taylor told Canary Media. Longer term, the utility hopes to construct a district-level geothermal network to heat and cool buildings without fossil fuels.
“I’m incredibly gratified by the support that voters of Ann Arbor have given to the SEU,” Taylor said. “The SEU is going to be both great for our carbon future and great for the pocketbook.”
The effort to fast-track local clean energy installations serves Ann Arbor’s ambitious climate goals. But it’s also a response to an uptick in power outages as extreme weather collides with for-profit utility DTE’s aging distribution-grid infrastructure. Monopoly utilities, for the most part, have shown little interest in seizing the opportunities of decentralized energy, but that’s core to the new Ann Arbor utility’s mission.
The measure’s success marks the latest episode in a sporadic national trend of communities trying to break free from the century-old model of for-profit, monopoly utilities controlling local energy systems.
Such efforts typically provoke a scorched-earth response from the incumbent utility. Utilities elsewhere have waged lengthy legal battles and spent millions of dollars on political campaigns to stop these escape attempts. When localities win their energy autonomy, they often have to pay hefty exit fees as a reimbursement for grid infrastructure built on their behalf. Communities that make it through that ringer then have to shoulder the laborious task of operating and maintaining decades-old infrastructure while trying to push ahead with new technologies.
In a bracing and punchily worded 2021 report, Ann Arbor’s sustainability office made clear that it would take a different route.
“Every dollar we don’t spend in litigation or to buy the [investor owned utility]’s old, failing infrastructure is money we can spend on new infrastructure here in Ann Arbor to generate power, distribute power, and store power — dollars we can use to immediately provide reliable, clean, and affordable public power to everyone,” the city wrote.
In short, it’s a distributed energy wish list coming to life. Ann Arbor has created a clear pathway to building more clean, local, resilient, and publicly owned infrastructure. If the city can make electricity cheaper on top of that, it will demonstrate that a better electricity system is possible even without completely overhauling the existing utility industry.
Local action for local needs
In 2019, Ann Arbor set a 2030 deadline to deliver equitable, community-wide carbon neutrality. Meeting that target requires sourcing clean electricity, driving out fossil-fuel combustion in buildings, and cleaning up transportation.
But the city’s built environment poses some challenges. Ann Arbor spans about 49,000 households, 52 percent of which are rentals. Overall housing stock averages 48 years old. That necessitates a lot of retrofits to turn these buildings into efficient systems running on clean electricity.
The SEU thus prioritizes energy-efficiency upgrades for customers. Unlike a for-profit utility, the municipally owned nonprofit has no incentive to let customers keep wasting energy. Ann Arbor aims to make efficiency more accessible with tools like on-bill financing, “structured to match or be lower than the monthly utility bill savings, resulting in a positive cash-flow for the customer immediately,” per the 2021 report.
The utility can buy equipment like solar panels and batteries in bulk and finance these upgrades with its AAA municipal credit rating, accessing far cheaper capital than a bunch of lone homeowners negotiating separately with private lenders. And the on-bill charge stays with the house — if someone moves out, the new resident takes over paying for the improvements that will lower their bill.
Climate goals weren’t the only factor motivating the change. The area’s aging grid has suffered a number of outages lately.
“Ann Arbor is currently served by an investor-owned utility that has a history of reliability challenges in our area,” Taylor noted. “We expect the SEU to provide far more reliable service.”
The SEU plans to install and own solar panels on customers’ rooftops and batteries in their sheds and garages, selling those customers the power at cost, without a markup. That lets residents access solar power and backup power without dropping a load of cash up front for it or taking on debt. This kind of subscription is available from companies like Sunrun, but they do it to make money, not to sell at cost.
The most radical dimension of the plan is to use the city’s utility franchise rights to build wires between properties, so that they can share excess solar power locally. Most everywhere in the country, customer-led upgrades have to stay on the customer side of the utility meter; crossing that boundary to sell power to a neighbor violates the utility’s legally enforced monopoly. This stands in the way of visions for interconnected neighborhoods generating and selling power with each other based on who needs it at a given moment.
But Ann Arbor officials tracked down a century-old precedent that makes sharing power possible: “The Michigan Constitution preserves the rights of cities and villages to form their own utility or to supplement an existing utility,” Missy Stults, the city’s sustainability and innovation director, told me.
Thus, the SEU will link up different properties if the people living there want it. If a home generates more solar than it can use, it could run a line to a neighboring house that’s shaded by trees, allowing it to buy surplus power.
“We’ll be able to connect homes with each other, schools with homes, schools with each other,” Taylor said. “We’re going to do this in a way that is cost-effective and fully opt-in.”
This plan assumes people will be happy to offer up their roof space for panels that the SEU will own and use for broader community benefit. But doing so will let that household buy cheaper, cleaner power for itself. The battery controls present some additional complications: Will the host customer get first dibs on backup power, or will that be split among the locally connected homes as well? This is new territory for distributed energy in the U.S.
That said, the strong show of support at the ballot box demonstrates the local community is fully on board with the general direction of the SEU. It’s no accident that this idea is coming to fruition in a college town like Ann Arbor, said Liesl Clark, a former state climate leader who now serves as director of climate action engagement at the University of Michigan.
“There are a lot of people who are innovative and also are interested in having agency,” she said. “It is a community that was ripe for a solution like this.”
Furthermore, the city structured the plan in a way to minimize any downside for residents who don’t want to jump on the decentralized power opportunity.
“You haven’t asked me how much it’s going to cost the taxpayer,” Taylor told me as I was about to wrap up our phone call. He answered the rhetorical question: “Nothing!”
That pledge veers into too-good-to-be-true territory, but the SEU structure makes it possible. The city won’t levy any new taxes because it’s not buying out DTE’s assets. Instead, it’s installing new equipment based on voluntary customer commitments, and those customers pay their way, while saving themselves money.
Breaking free from utilities without all the hassle
The outcome of this effort remains far from certain. But so far, Ann Arbor has managed to pursue a low-drama, low-conflict way to break up with a monopoly utility, in contrast to high-profile recent attempts elsewhere.
The city of Boulder, Colorado, famously fought for a decade to peel off from Xcel Energy, and ultimately gave up. In 2010, California mega-utility PG&E spent $46 million to make it harder for communities to source their own electricity, though even that gargantuan sum failed to stop the rise of community choice aggregators.
Maine has grappled for years with its deeply unpopular monopoly utilities. Last year, voters nonetheless soundly rejected a ballot referendum to seize utility assets under a new public power entity. The utilities spent $40 million to fight it, and independent experts raised concerns about how the public entity would deliver on promises of a cheaper, more efficient grid after saddling itself with billions of dollars of debt.
Activists in Ann Arbor have also pushed for full municipalization — a city-level version of what Maine considered and rejected. The city is working on a second study to dig into the details of what purchasing the grid infrastructure would entail. That conversation will continue as the SEU implementation moves forward, Taylor noted.
For its part, Michigan utility DTE hasn’t declared war on Ann Arbor. Following the vote, the company stated that it will continue to invest in making the city’s grid more resilient and clean — a recent Michigan climate law requires ramping to 60 percent renewable power by 2035 and 100 percent clean electricity by 2040.
The public interest in full municipalization may explain the muted response from the utility: The SEU allows DTE to go on with business as usual, and its distribution grid will continue to play a crucial role even if kilowatt-hour sales decline from the new local solar generation.
Instead of fighting the utility colossus head on, Ann Arbor is taking a live-and-let-live approach. It’s a case where avoiding head-on conflict could make it possible to deliver the benefits of clean, local energy far more quickly.
Dearborn, Michigan, was at the heart of auto industry innovation during the days of the Model T Ford.
Now clean energy and environmental justice advocates are proposing that the city play a lead role in greening the auto industry, through a transformation of the Dearborn Works steel mill to “green steel” — a steelmaking process powered by hydrogen and renewable energy with drastically lower emissions than a traditional blast furnace.
The blast furnace at Dearborn Works is due for relining in 2027, at an estimated cost of $470 million. Advocates argue that instead of prolonging the blast furnace’s life, its owner, Cleveland Cliffs, should invest another $2 billion dollars and convert the mill to Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) technology powered by green hydrogen (hydrogen produced with renewable energy).
An October report by Dr. Elizabeth Boatman of the firm 5 Lakes Energy examines the economics and logistics of such a conversion, and argues that demand for cleaner steel is likely to grow as auto companies and other global industries seek to lower their greenhouse gas footprints. Starting in 2026, steel importers to the European Union will need to make payments to offset emissions associated with steel production.
Worldwide, the auto industry is the second largest consumer of steel after construction, and “being able to pass on the price of a ‘green steel premium’ to its end consumers, the automotive industry is uniquely positioned to create demand for green steel without having to rely on public subsidies,” the European Union think tank CEPS said in a recent publication.
“This is a great chance for the state to step in now and ensure this conversion happens, instead of waiting another 20 years,” said Boatman. “All the economic indicators suggest clean steel is the steel product of the future, and the best way to future-proof jobs especially in the steel sector and especially for unions.”
Cutting pollution, creating jobs
Cleveland Cliffs is planning to convert its Middletown, Ohio, steel mill to DRI, tapping a $500 million federal grant for industrial decarbonization under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.
A DRI furnace does not need to use coke or heat iron ore to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to produce pure “pig iron”; the same result is achieved with a different chemical process at much lower temperatures. DRI furnaces can be powered by natural gas or clean hydrogen. Initially, Cleveland Cliffs says, its Middletown mill will run on natural gas, releasing about half the carbon emissions of its current blast furnace. Eventually, the company announced, it could switch to hydrogen.
Along with slashing greenhouse gas emissions, a similar green steel conversion at Dearborn Works would greatly reduce the local air pollution burden facing local residents in the heavily industrial area, which is also home to a Marathon oil refinery, a major rail yard and other polluters.
But it wouldn’t be cheap. Boatman’s report estimated the cost of converting a blast furnace to a DRI furnace and associated electric arc furnaces at $1.57 billion, plus $2.6 billion to build a green hydrogen plant. Utility DTE Energy would need to work with grid operator MISO to add about 2 GW of solar and 2 GW of wind power, plus battery storage, to the grid to power the green hydrogen production.
The conversion would mean closure of the EES Coke plant, which turns coal into coke for the steel mill, on heavily polluted Zug Island in the River Rouge just outside Detroit, five miles from Dearborn. In 2022, the EPA sued the coke plant, a subsidiary of DTE Energy, over Clean Air Act violations.
A recent study by the nonprofit Industrious Labs found that the EES Coke plant could be responsible for up to 57 premature deaths and more than 15,000 asthma attacks. The report also found that more than half the people living within a three-mile radius of both the steel mill and coke plant are low-income, and three-quarters of those living around the coke plant are people of color, as are half those living around the steel mill.
“The total health costs are quite significant,” said Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, which is representing local residents as intervenors in the EPA lawsuit against the coke plant. “We allow companies to externalize those costs and not account for them. If they were required by some sort of change in policy or regulation to be responsible for those costs, it would certainly make the case they could make this expensive switch” to green steel.
The law center also represented residents in legal proceedings around Dearborn Works’ Clean Air Act violations, including a 2015 consent decree and a 2023 mandate to install a new electrostatic precipitator at a cost of $100 million.
Leonard said local residents “know Cleveland Cliffs poses a risk to their health, and they want solutions. They know there’s a problem, they are frustrated by the lack of will or attention from state and local government.”
Cleveland Cliffs did not respond to a request for comment.
Why Michigan?
The country’s active steel mills are concentrated in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Advocates and residents are asking Nippon Steel to consider a green steel conversion at the Gary Works mill in Northwest Indiana, if the global corporation succeeds in acquiring Gary Works owner U.S. Steel. Advocates have also proposed green steel conversions for Pennsylvania mills.
There are factors that make a green steel conversion both more promising and more challenging at Dearborn Works, compared to other locations, Boatman explained.
Dearborn Works has only one blast furnace in operation, meaning a potentially smaller investment than at mills with more furnaces. Michigan has also set aggressive renewable energy goals, which could be furthered by the ambitious renewable energy buildout that would be required to produce enough green hydrogen for the steel mill.
“That’s why we’re asking the state of Michigan and the governor to get all the interested parties to the table to actually talk about this, hopefully commit to it, and do the detailed planning that needs to be done to figure out how much wind, how much solar, how much battery storage does there need to be to get this off the ground,” said Boatman.
Michigan has legal limits on behind-the-meter generation that could make it more difficult to build renewables specifically to power green hydrogen production for a steel mill. Utilities would instead need to produce or procure the renewable energy, and sell it to the steel mill, Boatman explained.
A green steel conversion at Dearborn Works could create a total of about 500 new jobs, Boatman estimates, considering that about 500 jobs would be lost at the closing coke plant but 410 jobs would be created at the hydrogen plant, 550 in new renewables and 170 at the mill itself. The DRI conversion at the Middletown steel mill is expected to create 170 new permanent jobs and 1,200 construction jobs, according to Cleveland Cliffs.
A 2023 analysis by the Ohio River Valley Institute found that at the Mon Valley Works steel mill in Pennsylvania, a DRI conversion would likely preserve more iron- and steel-making jobs than “business as usual,” with 87% of the current jobs expected to exist in 2031, compared to 69% without a change — as U.S. steel production continues to shrink and automate.
“We are seeing a general trend for both iron and [secondary] steel production to move toward the South, to states that aren’t friendly to unions and can produce products at cheaper prices by bypassing unions,” said Boatman. “Michigan obviously has a proud history of being a strong union state, it matters to keep those good union jobs there.”
Labor unions have largely been silent on the concept of green steel conversion. The United Auto Workers union — which represents Dearborn Works employees — and the United Steelworkers did not respond to requests for comment.
Hydrogen wild cards
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to spend $8 billion on hydrogen hubs, and a potentially lucrative tax credit known as 45V is being finalized for clean hydrogen. Experts and advocates agree that energy-intensive, hard-to-decarbonize industries like steel are where hydrogen could have the most impact. But large-scale production of pure hydrogen for industrial use is still in nascent stages, and little infrastructure has been built or tested for transporting and storing hydrogen.
That is among the reasons, Boatman said, that there’s been reluctance among residents and union leaders to embrace the concept of green steel. Boatman’s report emphasizes that community benefits agreements and community engagement processes are crucial to make sure residents are informed about, benefit from, and have a meaningful voice in any green steel plans.
“Union workers and fence-line community members all want better air quality, lower emissions, who wouldn’t want to go to work knowing you’re safer being there?” she said. “There’s a lot of interest in cleaning up the air. It’s more a question over how that happens. When hydrogen becomes part of the equation, there’s always some concern.”
She noted that hydrogen could potentially be stored in salt caverns in the Detroit area, though extensive study on the feasibility and environmental impacts would be needed. In Mississippi, a startup company Hy Stor Energy is planning to store green hydrogen in salt caverns, ready to generate electricity during times of high demand.
Tax incentives for clean hydrogen could provide major incentives for steel mills. But clean hydrogen proposed projects have been in flux nationwide as the rules for qualifying for 45V tax credits are being hashed out in a lengthy, controversial process; and the change in presidential administration adds even more uncertainty.
“These industries have to be incentivized,” said Roxana Bekemohammadi, founder and executive director of the U.S. Hydrogen Alliance, which advocates for pro-hydrogen policies on the state level. “Europe is creating a mandate — that’s one incentive. We’d love to support any incentives that would allow hydrogen to be leveraged in the steel industry. With state legislation we certainly can incentivize it. It’s a question of how competitive we want to be.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to finalize more than $200 million in grant funding in the coming weeks to accelerate the clean energy transition at three Great Lakes shipping ports.
The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, and the Illinois International Port District were each selected for grants last month under the Biden administration’s Clean Ports Program.
The U.S. EPA said it intends to finalize grant agreements by December or January. That action will obligate the federal government to pay roughly $3 billion in grants under the program, even if President-elect Donald Trump or the next Congress tries to repeal or block further action under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The $94 million grant announced for the Cleveland port is the largest it has ever received and will help it build on work that’s already underway to electrify and decarbonize its infrastructure.
“It puts us at the forefront of decarbonization,” said William Friedman, president and chief executive officer of Cleveland’s port authority. “Now we’ll be able to start figuring out what’s the phase-in and then how do we move forward with the next round.”
The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority will get approximately $25 million for solar panels, charging infrastructure and electric cargo handling equipment, and another $95 million will go to the Illinois EPA for solar, battery storage and hydrogen-related investments at the Illinois International Port District serving greater Chicago.
The largest share of grants will go to ports along the East and West coasts. “But the program is also intended to set the foundation for transitioning the entire port industry to zero emissions,” said Jennifer Macedonia, a deputy assistant administrator for U.S. EPA. “And there are important communities around many of our inland ports as well.”
The shipping industry accounts for roughly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. While the bulk of that is from ships themselves, port operations typically rely on diesel power for most of their energy. And ships often burn fuel to power equipment even while they’re in port.
The EPA’s review process included ensuring that selected projects can achieve or exceed goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other pollution that can affect nearby communities, said U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Those criteria air pollutants are ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
The work is especially important for Ohio, which has lagged other Midwest states and regions in deploying strategies to reduce greenhouse gases, said Valerie Katz, deputy director for Cuyahoga Green Energy. “Our regional decarbonization efforts will reduce environmental exposure to toxic air pollutants for downstream Ohio communities.”
Funding for the Port of Cleveland will encompass work for electric cargo-handling equipment and vessels that serve the port, along with solar generation and battery storage, charging infrastructure and shore power for vessels. Project partners include Logistec USA, the commercial operator for day-to-day operations, as well as the Great Lakes Towing Company, which will build two electric tug boats.
Decarbonization is a “competitive advantage that will attract more shipping volume to our port,” said Baiju Shah, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. “Companies are striving to reduce their environmental footprints through their operations and value chains,” including Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. “In addition, electrifying the port operations supports our region’s clean air efforts.”
That’s especially important given the port’s location near the downtown lakefront and riverfront areas, Shah said. Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River are the focus for several waterfront development projects aimed at drawing more business and visitors to Cleveland.
Funding for the Port of Detroit will go toward electric cargo-handling equipment, some vessels and railcar movers, along with charging infrastructure and solar generation. Part of the money also will be used to develop a roadmap for adding EV and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority is part of the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, or MachH2, which was selected last year for $1 billion in Department of Energy funding for a hydrogen hub.
Funding for the Illinois International Port District will cover a variety of projects for its three ports, including hydrogen fueling infrastructure, solar energy and battery storage, and hydrogen and electric cargo handling equipment. Hydrogen and electric locomotives also are on EPA’s program selections list. The Illinois EPA is the lead partner for the grant work.
Like its counterpart in Cleveland, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority had already begun working on plans to move to cleaner energy sources for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. But zero-emissions equipment to move cargo is new in the U.S. shipping industry and is still generally more expensive than fossil-fueled counterparts.
“What’s great about the EPA grant is that it helps these businesses make the decision to choose this cleaner technology,” said Mark Schrupp, executive director for the Detroit port authority. Over time, costs for such equipment should come down, but the grants will help launch market growth.
Various projects among the 55 selected for grants last month have planning components and provisions for community engagement or workforce development. Planning work on emissions inventories can position other ports to move ahead with clean energy in the future, Macedonia said.
The U.S. EPA plans to move ahead swiftly to finalize grant agreements, which will have the effect of protecting the funds from a possible clawback under Trump or the next Congress.
“We will be awarding the grants in December of 2024 and January of 2025… so that money will be obligated on or before the end of this administration,” Regan said. Depending on the projects, implementation will occur over the next three to four years.
In Cleveland, that means a big chunk of work under the new grant will be taking place even as renovation of the Port of Cleveland’s Warehouse A and electrical work take place under its current projects.
“We’ll have to throw a lot here at the engineers and construction project management people to figure this out,” Friedman said. Yet the timing means it will be that much sooner for the port to move to zero emissions for its own operations.
The following commentary was written by Mel Mackinm, director of state policy at Ceres, a nonprofit that works with investors and companies to advance clean energy policy.See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Look out across Michigan and you’ll see groundbreakings for major solar panel manufacturing sites, huge investments to build battery cells, and sparkling new facilities to ensure the state stays in the driver’s seat as the auto industry moves into the future.
It seems Michigan manufacturing is having a moment.
It’s little wonder why. Michigan has always had the legacy, the workforce, the supply chains, and the know-how to serve as the epicenter of an American manufacturing renaissance. That’s exactly what’s happened since Congress finalized the nation’s largest-ever clean energy investment in the summer of 2022.
Powered by incentives for companies to manufacture and deploy clean energy infrastructure and technology here in the U.S., the Inflation Reduction Act has unlocked more than $360 billion in private-sector investment in less than two years, according to research from Climate Power. Its impact has been felt in every corner of the country with hundreds of new projects taking shape to build innovative technologies, employ hundreds of thousands of workers, and power the economy – all while cutting costs and pollution. But no other state has seen as much activity as Michigan, the site of 58 new clean energy projects.
Michigan policymakers deserve some credit for moving quickly to take full advantage of this opportunity. In 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made clear in her MI Healthy Climate Plan that she wanted to make Michigan one of the best places in the world to build and deploy clean energy. Lawmakers since followed her lead with legislation that will move the state to 100% clean electricity by 2040 and ensure clean power infrastructure can be built both quickly and responsibly – a pair of laws that boasted ample support from Michigan companies that recognize confronting climate change is also an economic opportunity.
These policies were designed to fully harness the Inflation Reduction Act, making clear that the state is ready to support the growing number of businesses that supply or rely on innovative clean technology. In response, businesses that include classic Michigan manufacturers like GM, global brands like Corning, and upstarts like Lucid Motors have flooded the state with more than $21.5 billion in new clean energy innovation and manufacturing investment, creating some 20,100 new jobs.
With projects located from Detroit to Holland to Traverse City, so much of the state is already benefitting. That includes communities that have so far been left behind in the 21st century economy. About half of the state’s recent clean energy investment is located in rural or low-income areas, such as Norm Fasteners’ $77 million facility that will create 200 electric vehicle supply chain jobs in Bath Charter Township.
Now is not the time to slow down. We are now in the throes of the 2024 election, and we all know Michigan has been getting a lot of attention. No matter what happens in November, Michigan and the U.S. must continue investing in this revamped manufacturing base. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have prioritized rebuilding American industry to provide good jobs and bolster U.S. leadership
Michigan’s clean energy manufacturing boom provides clear evidence that this shared goal is coming to fruition. Policymakers at both the federal and state levels, along with leaders in the private sector, must maintain this momentum and the strong policy environment that will allow the U.S. and its workforce to lead the global economy in the emerging industries of the future – with Michigan, as it so often has, standing strong as the foundation.
The following commentary was written by Laura Sherman, president of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council.See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Last year, Michigan got attention as the first Midwestern state to adopt an energy storage standard. Energy storage is essential for the clean energy transition because it allows clean electricity initially generated by sources like wind and solar to be available at all times.
The standard calls for 2,500 MW of energy storage to be deployed by 2030. This storage will be fulfilled by a range of technologies, with lithium-ion batteries, the type of the storage that has grown rapidly across the U.S. and the world in recent years, chief among them. But it’s not too early to start thinking about how this standard (and future standards) will also involve new technologies that serve different needs, including shifting low-cost energy over longer periods of time to support electric reliability and affordability. A U.S. Department of Energy report found that to achieve a net-zero economy, the U.S. grid may need 225 GW to 460 GW of long-duration energy storage by 2050. By comparison, the U.S. currently has over 500 GW of gas power plants, and battery storage capacity is expected to double to about 30 GW by the end of this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Fortunately, Michigan’s energy legislation anticipated this need. The legislation that created the 2030 storage target also ordered Michigan regulators to report to lawmakers on the potential for long-duration and multi-day energy storage. The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) is in the midst of this study right now.
But how is “long-duration” energy storage different from the battery storage that is growing quickly in Michigan and across the country right now? It’s all about the concept of duration, which refers to how long a storage resource like a battery can discharge stored energy until it is out of capacity. Most of the batteries being built at utility scale right now have a duration of around four hours. But long-duration storage refers to resources that have a duration of over 8 hours and up to well over 100 hours.
This longer duration unlocks capabilities that will make 100% clean electricity a reality. Short-duration storage right now can cover shortfalls in wind and solar on an hour-by-hour basis. But what about if there is a shortfall in energy supply expected not for just a few hours, but from one day to the next? Or from one month to the next? Those situations arise especially in seasons like winter, where cloud cover can linger and hamper solar energy production for extended periods of time. That is where the need for long-duration storage comes in. Long-duration storage could become a capacity resource that grid operators can tap to reliably deal with long-term fluctuations in energy supply, like those caused by changes in the season from summer to winter.
What would this type of energy storage actually look like in practice? Two companies that are members of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council are potential examples.
Energy Dome’s above ground compressed gas technology, the “CO2 Battery,” is a closed-loop system that holds carbon dioxide gas in a large dome structure. Using electricity from solar panels and wind turbines, this gas is heated and compressed into a liquid, which can be easily stored at room temperature. When discharging, the liquid is evaporated, and the resulting gas spins a turbine, generating electricity when needed, often with one full cycle per day (8+ hours of discharging). The company is currently constructing its first full-scale plant in Sardinia, Italy, with the project nearing completion. In the U.S., another plant is soon to follow, with project proponent Alliant Energy recently filing for regulatory approval of the Columbia Energy Storage Project in Wisconsin.
Form Energy is commercializing a multi-day energy storage technology, a 100-hour duration iron-air battery for utility-scale applications. Essentially, the battery rusts and un-rusts iron to store and release electricity. Form Energy has constructed a new factory to manufacture these batteries domestically, and is working to deploy the first large-scale demonstrations of its technology with utilities like Great River Energy, Xcel Energy, Dominion and Georgia Power in 2025 and 2026.
A tremendous amount of innovative work will need to happen between now and the realization of the full potential for long-duration storage. There are a few things Michigan regulators should do with their study to best set up the state to reap the benefits from these emerging technologies:
First, the Commission should set clear targets for how much long-duration and multi-day storage utilities need to procure in coming years. Utilities are generally conservative and hesitant to pursue new technologies unless pushed or clearly allowed. But this problem is particularly heightened when it comes to long-duration storage. That’s because utilities, if given a megawatt target for storage they must deploy, will likely acquire storage without considering the benefits of having a diverse portfolio of technologies that can deliver energy over different durations. As a result, Michigan may lose out on the operational benefits that come from having a diversified storage portfolio. These benefits include the ability of long-duration storage to make firing up high-emitting, fossil-fuel-burning peaker plants unnecessary because the storage can provide more reliable, cleaner and cheaper alternatives. They also include overall cost and land-use savings, by storing renewable energy when it would otherwise be wasted and shifting it over long time periods when it is most needed.
Second, speaking of substitutes for fossil fuel plants, the Commission should identify which power plant sites around the state could be good candidates for being replaced with long-duration storage projects. Michigan’s coal-fired power plants are almost all retired, with Consumers Energy this year set to retire its final coal plant in Ottawa County. Long-duration storage could be fitting replacements for not only those plants, but also gas plants that will be reaching the end of their life cycles in coming years.
With its storage targets, Michigan has already become one of the national leaders in energy storage. Let’s further cement that reputation by taking steps now for smart planning for long-duration storage. All Michiganders stand to benefit from the potential for long-duration storage to enable an electric grid that is cleaner, lower-cost and more reliable.
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