Take a deep breath, and you know you’re in Michigan. The air is the cleanest it’s been in a generation. It’s easy to take for granted. Not us. We strive to do better.

In November 2024, we filed updates to our Renewable Energy Plan. We intend to file updates to our Clean Energy Plan in 2026. Together, these updated plans will serve as Consumers’ blueprint meeting the requirements of Michigan’s 2023 Energy Law by focusing on increasing generation of renewable energy, deploying energy storage, ensuring supply reliability, helping customers use less energy, and offering demand response programs to reduce demand during critical peak times.

Consumers’ Clean Energy Plan details its strategy to meet customers’ long-term energy needs and deliver safe, reliable, affordable, clean, and equitable energy to our customers. This strategy includes:

• Ending the use of coal in owned generation
• Purchasing the Covert Generating Station, a natural gas-fueled generating facility with 1,200 MW of nameplate capacity in 2023, allowing Consumers to continue to provide controllable sources of electricity to customers
• Soliciting capacity from sources able to deliver to Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, including battery storage facilities

Consumers Energy’s last remaining coal-fired plant was scheduled for retirement at the end of May 2025 but continues to operate pursuant to a U.S. Department of Energy emergency order issued under the Federal Power Act. Consumers Energy intends to comply with Department of Energy orders.

We have pledged to protect the planet by achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s entire natural gas production and delivery system — including customers and suppliers — by 2050. Achieving net zero emissions means eliminating the impact of emissions traced to the burning of natural gas by customers and greenhouse gas emissions caused by natural gas suppliers who produce and transport natural gas to the company’s system.

As a next step on our path to net zero by 2050, we are already implementing industry-leading plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These include: 

• Modernizing our natural gas system to achieve net zero methane emissions from our natural gas delivery system by 2030.
• Ending coal use and boosting renewable energy fuel sources to achieve 100% clean energy in our electric business by 2040.

Pursuing our greenhouse gas goals for all emission sources, including those from customers and suppliers, aligns the company’s efforts with Michigan’s Healthy Climate Plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as well as the recommendations of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.

Consumers Energy is executing and exploring a variety of pathways to support customers and suppliers who want to reduce their emissions.

• Carbon offsets: The company received regulatory approval for a new program for residential and business customers who want to voluntarily offset carbon emissions from their natural gas use by investing in projects that help Michigan forests reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or through investing in RNG.
• Renewable natural gas, or RNG: Produced from organic wastes and other renewable sources, RNG is interchangeable with conventional natural gas and a key technology available to reduce methane emissions. The company has announced an agreement with Swisslane Farms in west Michigan to build a biodigester facility that, with regulatory approval, will convert agricultural waste into RNG.
• Energy efficiency: Providing customers with the power to reduce energy waste and lower bills through a variety of energy efficiency and demand response programs. Since 2009, we’ve helped customers save about $4 billion and prevented the emission of almost 19 million tons of carbon dioxide.
• Emerging technologies: Potential solutions include using hydrogen to produce energy, capturing and permanently storing carbon emissions from natural gas combustion and using hybrid natural gas and electric heat pump systems to heat homes and businesses.

The company is also modernizing its natural gas operations with a 10-year Natural Gas Delivery Plan to ensure the continued delivery of safe, reliable, affordable and clean natural gas. The plan includes accelerated infrastructure replacement, innovative leak detection and key process changes to eliminate, avoid and minimize methane emissions.

See our required postings for other waste disposal information on regulatory requirements related to toxic emissions and greenhouse gasses.