A statewide campaign to stop construction of seven coal-fired power plants came to Leelanau County Tuesday with a press event under the windmill that's owned by Traverse City Light & Power in Elmwood Township.

Members of the Sierra Club organized the Leelanau County protest, one of eight held across Michigan.

“One of the main thrusts is the Legislature has been up to their eyeballs on the budget situation, and now it appears they are going to be moving through a lot of business fairly quickly,” said Tom Karas, spokesman for the Sierra Club.

The environmental organization is pressing lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to approve a moratorium on coal-burning plants. Part of its argument is that coal plants release carbon dioxide, which was declared a pollutant recently in a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The Sierra Club wants to cap carbon dioxide emissions at their present levels while the energy community turns its attention to more earth-friendly fuels such as wind and solar.

New coal plants are being proposed near Rogers City and Manistee.

Craig Borr of Cadillac-based Wolverine Power Cooperative has a different take, however, saying that Michigan is a net importer of electric power and the new plants would be much more efficient — and release less carbon dioxide — than present coal plants.

Wolverine is seeking an air quality permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality to build a coal plant near Rogers City.

“Many of these opposition groups come from a perspective of ‘just say no,’” said Borr.

Most electrical energy consumed in Leelanau County comes from a 48-year-old coal plant in Bay City. Wolverine’s new plant would be “multiple times cleaner,” Borr said.