MPSC Hopes to Streamline Netmetering

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) will hold a public hearing to provide people with an opportunity to comment on the proposed rule changes that govern net metering and interconnection.

Net metering occurs when customers produce electric energy in excess of their needs, providing power back to the serving utility and permitting the customer to receive a credit for power they supply to the system. It is anticipated that most net metering customers will be using wind or solar generation equipment.

The hearing will be held at 9 a.m. on March 3 at the MPSC's office, 6545 Mercantile Way, in Lansing. Click here to read the proposal in full.

Author Event and Booksigning March 5th

Diet (Deet) Eman, author of "Things We Couldn't Say," shares her personal story of risking everything to rescue Dutch Jews in Holland from the Nazis during World War II.

Thursday March 5th at 6:30 PM
in the Community Room.

Take our Green Building Tour

To learn more about the Hastings Public Library's green building, take our audio tour. You can pick up the tour at the Information Desk and start in the South lobby at Station One. The tour explains our green building's features at five stations around the library giving participants a better idea of the work that went into building a LEED certified Gold library in Hastings.

The process begins with our building site, a Brownfield, which required a plastic seal between our building and the ground and a set of venting pipes to provide excellent indoor air quality. In the South lobby, you will also see information on our latest green addition, our 30 roof mounted solar panels. The video display shows how much energy the panels are producing each day.

Enjoy the tour!

March Author Presentation

March 5 at 7:00 p.m. in the library's Community Room:

The Book Club for Adults welcomes everyone to a talk by Diet Eman, author of our March reading selection, Things We Couldn't Say. Her presentation does not require reading the book and books will be available for purchase and author signing at the program.

Diet Eman grew up in Holland, turning 18 in 1940 just as the Germans occupied her country. Living in The Hague, Diet was working in a bank and wanting to help her countrymen and women but fearful of approaching neighbors who were submitting to the German rule. Eventually, she is connected to the underground resistance movements and has successes and much suffering as she lives her conscience in a world gone mad.

Her presentation will educate us, challenge us and ultimately reward us as we come to understand war and resistance in very personal ways.

Book Club for Adults

April's book discussion of Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas will be on the 2nd at 6:30 pm in the library's Community Room. Ellis, Colorado, a small town bordering the Rockies, becomes the site of a relocation camp during World War II. Our narrator, a young teenager, notes that her first impression was not of the "yellow peril" of the newspaper cartoons but people who looked so ordinary. So begins, Tallgrass which, in the words of current author Gail Tsukiyama, "speaks to a time in our history when prejudice and fear fueled passions that divided family and friends." This book gives participants much to discuss about how our country reacted to wartime dangers and how we react today.

Wall Street Journal Offers Energy Options

While there are many expensive technological fixes to choose from when going green, a special Energy section in the February 9th Wall Street Journal offers a number of lower cost options for retrofitting your home with their payback times. Another article looks at finding ways to get utilities to promote energy efficiency. According to author, Rebecca Smith, "It isn't easy to get utilities to promote energy efficiency, and for good reason: When people use less electricity, utilities usually lose revenue." Governor Granholm spoke of this paradox in her State of the State Address last week. One solution being looked at is called decoupling. According to Smith's article, "States let the utilities make up some of the lost revenue if consumers use less power. For instance, states might let utilities raise rates if their revenue falls below a certain point, or charge a flat monthly fee to cover some of their costs." Perhaps some possibilities worth considering as climate change continues to come to a head. Check out the links for more information.