The Leelanau County Energy Futures Task Force (EFTF) launched last fall with a seemingly simple goal: “To identify opportunities and facilitate implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Leelanau County.” A year in, though, that task force has weathered significant controversy, including alleged Open Meetings Act (OMA) violations, conflict-of-interest accusations, and public infighting. On hand at a Tuesday evening meeting of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners, task force chair Joe DeFors gave a report on his initiative’s first year – and accused both a sitting county commissioner and a current board candidate of misinformation and hypocrisy.

DeFors is the board president for Leelanau Energy, a grassroots citizens group that has been advocating for renewable energy and energy efficiency investments since 2008. Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker last fall, DeFors said Leelanau Energy had “approached the county at least a couple times over the last few years about the idea of creating a permanent energy-focused committee for the county.” Thanks to a co-sign from District 6 Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier, the idea took flight last September when the county board approved an initial one-year run for the EFTF.

But that 12-month proving ground became rocky. At a county commission meeting in January, DeFors got into a shouting match with District 1 Commissioner Melinda Lautner, who criticized a proposal to seek state grant funds for the installation of solar panels on the county’s governmental center property in Suttons Bay. Lautner, despite insisting on being a member of the 14-member task force when it was formed, has since pushed back against almost all of the group’s efforts. In this case, she alleged that solar panel manufacturing was “tied to the Chinese” and that solar field “remediation” might eventually saddle the county with significant unseen expenses.

Commissioners ultimately voted to allow the solar grant application, which is still pending, but did not make a final decision on installing the solar array.

DeFors and Lautner have also accused one another of conflicts of interest – Lautner pointing to DeFors’ affiliations with Leelanau Energy, DeFors raising questions about Lautner’s status as a board member for two utilities, Cherryland Electric and Wolverine Power Cooperative. Cherryland, which is a member cooperative of Wolverine Power, currently supplies power to the Leelanau governmental center.

The EFTF’s issues haven’t just been with Lautner, though: This past spring, a Northport resident filed a complaint with the Leelanau County prosecutor’s office, accusing the task force of violating the OMA by not posting notices or minutes for its first several meetings. DeFors chalked the oversight up to misunderstanding, explaining that the ETFT had not known whether it was considered a public body due being a task force rather than a committee or board. Following a Michigan State Police investigation, Assistant Leelanau County Prosecutor Tristan Chamberlain concluded that the EFTF had indeed violated the OMA, but declined to prosecute due to “insufficient evidence to show this was an intentional violation.”

Despite the rocky first year, DeFors urged county commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting to extend the EFTF for another three years, citing pending grant applications and support from 13 of the 14 task force members, with Lautner abstained. Commissioners plan to discuss what to do with the task force at their November meeting.

In addition to his one-year report, DeFors submitted a written public comment last night, claiming that he, his fellow EFTF members, and county commissioners who support the task force have “been attacked for our work serving this community. In particular, DeFors took aim at Lautner and at Jim White, a Republican candidate running against incumbent (and board chair) Ty Wessell for the District 4 seat. DeFors called White “a super spreader of misinformation” and accused him of launching “a litany of falsehoods and environmental myths against the Task Force and his opponent.”

During a recent forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Leelanau County, White and Wessell answered multiple questions about the proposed solar array. While Wessell expressed support for the project, White criticized it, saying he knows “a lot of people are in love with solar and wind” – and claiming to be “in love with green energy” – but suggesting that installing solar at the government center was “unneeded” given Wolverine and Cherryland’s recent commitment to purchase a substantial amount of energy from the soon-to-be-rebooted Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan.

“I think that nuclear power is green power, so the question that I would have about [this solar array project] is, why do we need a redundant system?” White said.

White also expressed doubts about solar’s efficacy during northern Michigan winters, claimed solar panels are manufactured using raw materials mined “in countries where they use child labor,” and argued that installing a solar array on governmental center property would amount to “visual pollution.”

In his public comment, DeFors accused White of getting many of his talking points “from a paper titled ‘Grading the Grid’ from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, that is closely associated with, and partially funded by, the Mackinac Center, a far-right think tank.” 

“In this day and age, it is not a surprise that a small minority of the public will push back on almost anything – taking positions that are wildly at odds with conventional wisdom, science and fact,” DeFors concluded.