“We all need to rethink our understanding of energy generation resources. Technology and market changes are making these types of [renewable] resources the lowest-cost alternative, while they also continue to keep a downward pressure on rates.”

The speaker there is Leisl Eichler Clark of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, a business trade association.

Clark is joined in this month’s “This Is Not Cool” Yale Climate Connections video by other Michiganders – including Dale Kirbyson, city manager of Lapeer, Mi., and Joanna Lewis of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum (“Michigan’s Conservative Voice for Energy“) in touting the virtues of solar energy in the nation’s “heartland.”

The video captures the sentiments of state residents and large and small businesses in and beyond Michigan – General Motors, Microsoft, Dow, Consumers Energy, Facebook, and Virginia-based Dominion Energy. Lapeer City Manager Kirbyson says that in his community properties near solar projects are increasing in value faster than the overall averages, and he and others point to 50 to 70 percent declines in solar and wind energy costs as helping propel the state-wide (and national) boom in renewables.