County officials need to be taking concrete actions now to prepare for the November implementation of a controversial state law on siting renewable energy facilities, a University of Michigan analyst told Podcast 83 in a new episode.

“If you hire outside legal counsel, or if you have outside planning experts, you need to get them on retainer now because everybody is going to be changing their ordinances between August and the end of the year,” said Sarah Mills of the university’s Center for EmPowering Communities.

Public Act 233 was adopted in 2023 despite opposition from MAC and others due to its assault on local control by giving ultimate authority on siting decisions to the unelected Public Service Commission (PSC).

In a wide-ranging discussion with host Stephan Currie and MAC’s Madeline Fata, Mills explained that the law still leaves local governments with responsibilities ― and opportunities.

“One of the things that's really important is to think about what the law does, and what it doesn't do,” Mills said. “So zoning is still in effect; local governments can still zone for renewables. It's just for those biggest projects. So solar projects that are over about 400 acres, wind projects that are like 330 or so and then energy storage projects, which we don't have very many of right now. But this kind of scale of project that we're talking about is something that could be on as little as five acres of land.”

Mills noted that the PSC will be issuing its final draft recommendations on how to implement the law on June 21, then the body will take feedback on them before issuing the final official plan around Aug. 9.

In the meantime, Mills said, counties need to decide whether they’ll adopt an ordinance at all, a compatible renewable energy ordinance (CREO) or a workable ordinance that allows locals to set criteria outside of the law but that might still be attractive to developers.