NUANCE UNITED

Neighbors United and WON

NUANCE How Grassroots Grow

By Hilary Nichols

Ann Arbor is not only one of the most amazing towns in America, ranked as the city with the best quality of life in America by Forbes magazine, but it is also the greatest region. Thanks to our Greenbelt policy, thousands of acres of farmland and open space surrounding the City of Ann Arbor have been preserved. We can drive a short way from Main Street in any direction and be surrounded by idyllic pastoral land. The people in the townships that share the stretch along I-94 are proud to have passed down their farming tradition and their homesteads for generations. When our neighbor, just 12 miles west of town, Ken Klovski witnessed Consumers Energy’s (CE) workers digging deep testing holes in his neighbor’s field he did his research. Klovski is a retired DTE engineer and knew something about the process. His research found CE’s option agreement to purchase his neighbor’s land and an open project listed on MISO’s website.

The MISO Queue Filing (Federal Infrastructure Registry) The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) runs the power grid across much of the Midwest. Consumers Energy filed for Project J3923 in the MISO interconnection queue on February 28, 2025: ● Capacity: 1,414 megawatts

He shared his findings with MLIVE. When Jeff Parness read the story, and viewed Lima Township’s townhall meeting, posted on Youtube, the last question posed brought the concern close. “What are the health risks posed by particulate matter downwind from a gas fired power plant?” CE’s answer, that they follow all government guidelines, was not actually reassuring. Parness recently built their family’s dream house just two miles east of the proposed site. The health of his family and his neighbors was at risk. That was June 5th. By June 6th he had formed the page which launched the grassroots campaign NUANCE: Neighbors United Against Noxious Consumers Energy. Parness shared “I recorded my first “Good Morning Garrick” video.” Parness has now posted over 12 video messages spoken directly to Garrick Rochow, the CEO of CE. “I gave him the courtesy of one week to withdraw the project before I start dialing my fund manager and stock annalyst friends on June 16th.” Clearly CE didn’t know the fire power of the population in this neighborhood when they positioned this purchase agreement. Within two weeks 1500 members joined the NUANCE site and amplified the fight.

Neighbors who had never met, and held opposing beliefs, all came together in each other’s barns, and living room meetings, and on the growing NUANCE page. Conflicts became conversations, concerns found comforts and all came together to unite around this central cause. 150 citizens crowded into Lima Township’s emergency meeting on Friday June 12th. All approved when Township Supervisor Bill VanRiper announced a 12-month moratorium to temporarily halt permitting, considering or approving power generating facilities in the township. The relief was palpable but not impenetrable. The efforts continued.

Parness kept up the ‘Coffee with Garrick morning videos. But he realized “This invite can’t be all about pressure, it has got to be about the love.” On Sunday June 14th Garrick Rochow sat down at Jeff Parness’s dining room table. Within one week of the request, the CEO of a massive energy company showed up and showed good will. His message was very encouraging. But not yet rock solid.

On June 19th, Parness called an emergency summit for elected officials, environmental lawyers and some press to gather at his dining room table. Twenty three participants from township, city, county and state level shared strategies and plans with legal counsel from the Sierra Club and The Great Lakes Environmental Legal Center. Now the fight had teeth. These leaders formed an emergency legal and regulatory committee with key elected officials from all across the region and gathered for their 2nd official meeting on June 23rd.

Parness posted, “This amazing group headed up by Kate Henson, the Mayor of Chelsea and supported by Chelsea City Manager Elle Cole has created a powerful platform to leverage the power and resources of Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Scio, Sylvan, Lyndon, Freedom townships and surrounding communities to team up and support Lima Township in this fight of a lifetime that impacts all the residents - children, seniors, families - who live near or downwind from the proposed power plant.”

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center GLELC staff attorney Andrew Bashi has been fighting these sorts of polluters for his whole career. “First thing to understand, there are definitely some unique harms that many are not aware of beyond the danger of the particulates. Sleeper issues that are often more threatening for day to day life to residents. Fire risk, the noise and heat island effect creates immediate and long term disturbances. These are not nuisances, these are serious life and death concerns.” As the threats to our region’s quality of life for the whole region compile, Bashi offers some optimism. “These community fights matter. I believe this push to build data centers will not continue at this rate. Our job now is to throw as many wrenches into the cogs to slow things down. And that is what we are doing.” But Parness didn’t just intend to slow down the approach of this power plant, he intended to unite his neighbors, the families, and children, the elected officials and CEO’s together to not just slow this down, but to stop it.

On July 1st, just before the official media advisory was sent out at noon, Garrick Rochow again did the courageous thing and reached out to Jeff Parness personally. “Garrick called to extend me the courtesy to let me know that we got everything that we asked for. And I was able to express my gratitude to him directly on behalf of our family, our community and our whole region.”

Media Statement:

“Consumers Energy will not move forward with the proposed plant in Lima Township. We will release the option on the land back to the property owner and withdraw our application to study the costs of interconnecting this project to the electric grid with our grid operator. We recognize that our communication fell short to the Lima Township community to address their concerns about the project and apologize for that. Our Integrated Resource Plan, to be filed in the third quarter of this year, will show our blueprint to supply clean energy resources to meet the energy demand for our customers.”

And then Jeff Parness shared his official statement to over 1800 NUANCE members.

“By showing up at my table in 8 days to honor the concerns of local residents in Lima Township and the surrounding areas of Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter and beyond, Consumers Energy CEO Garrick Rochow might have set a record in the history of corporate America for committing to do right by the community.

The entire leadership of Consumers Energy is to be commended for their responsiveness and grace. They have set an example for our community - and for the Nation - about what it means to engage in courageous conservations as neighbors - with respect, with hope, and with love.

This experience reaffirms my strong belief that when Americans come together to help one another in difficult situations, nothing is impossible.”

This is the kind of responsive action that can change not only a company but an industry.