[Next Era presentation still not Re-Scheduled Publicly]

August 24, 2026 6:00 P.M.

The Amber Township Board of Trustees met today to hear a presentation from Next Era Energy, who want to put a Battery Storage Facility on some farmland there.

Nearly 100 people were present for this, including officials from the county and various townships. Tom Alway, Township Supervisor, informed them that they would have to leave and re-schedule the presentation with Next Era for a bigger venue.

So, about 80 people vacated the town hall.

In Public Comment, Alway informed his public that it is a time for the public to “comment” not questions to be answered and nor a dialogue.

“We are here to work with each other as a board and the public is invited if they want to come, it is not an open forum or a Q/A,” he stated.

I spoke up to say “I’ve talked to some of your farmers and neighbors about this Battery Plant, and they are on the same mind that if you don’t open the meeting sharing the same concerns they have… it will be difficult to trust you, sir.”

A veteran spoke up to say he did not agree with that and this is a “government for the people and by the people.”

“Ok. Anyone else?” Alway said.

Carlos Alvarado, Township Attorney, responded directly to the man to say that it is time for “comment” not questions and that this is “how the government works in the United States.”

At a different time, Alvarado said he has been preparing a letter to Great Lakes Energy and has a meeting with the Water Department in the City of Ludington.

“Ok. Anyone else?” Alway said.

I spoke up to say “Mr. Alvarado talks about the United States government, and I would like to also talk about it… our history shows us that this is a time for discussion and getting answers from those elected.

“Ok. Anyone else?” Alway said.

Jeanne Miller, Township Treasurer, offered an idea aligned with the Constitution, to hold a town hall where citizens can get answers from their Amber officials about this Battery Plant.

Alway was not eager to talk about it at the meeting and suggested it be talked about later.

A very important note to mention is that the Attorney representing Next Era is the same man who was representing DTE when they tried to push a Solar Farm onto the Mason County Board of Commissioners.

I approached the three men pictured in this post who did not get to present for Next Era:

I approached Chesten Goodman, Project Manager, I identified myself and asked him if he recalls my phone calls and voicemails I left him and his employees last year to get answers about their Battery proposal.

When Goodman said he did not know what I was talking about, he looked annoyed. I informed him that I’m used to reading situations like this and so he walked off.

One man was Sutton, he said he was not with Next Era but wanted to present. He had shirt that looked like a business logo with a Wind Turbine on it, the symbol was S (Windmill Picture) S.

When I asked him another question he walked off the interview but he and Goodman were stopped by the veteran.

I soon recalled Mr. Goodman saying that they wanted to be “neighborly” and present to the Township. When they began to walk away from the veteran, I approached the men for a final time to say “neighborly is asking questions.”

So, they continued their walk to the exit.

Finally, Amber Township does not have its own Zoning and therefore falls under the Mason County Zoning Code, but that leaves a major risk for the Michigan Public Service Commission to use Public Act 233 to force this Battery Plant onto our community regardless of our thorough research and published reports in Ludington Data Center Watch, our grassroots movement.

Not only does our research prove these Battery Plants are no good in themselves and lead to Data Centers, but so does the research of grassroots movements state-wide.

In our research, we have looked into the positive things that people say about so-called “Clean” Energy and Data Centers… and discovered the evidence that proves all of them as lies.

We have published our findings on TheLudingtonExperiment.com

Thank You and Goodnight,

Marco C. Iafrate

From right to left, Sutton is the man seated with the Mustache, Goodman is the young Project Manager… and to the left, the man with Glasses is Daniel T. Ettinger, the Next Era Attorney who also represented DTE in their attempts to push a Solar Farm onto Mason County Commissioners. At the time, two employees became frustrated with our County’s stance and threatened that the MPSC would just “overstep” them.