Executive Directive 2022-11: Lowering Costs for Businesses with the Inflation Reduction Act

To: State Department Directors and Autonomous Agency Heads
From: Governor Gretchen Whitmer

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is commonsense legislation that will lower the cost of prescription drugs, health care, and energy, and create and protect millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs. 

Michigan can utilize the IRA to get things done that make a real difference in people’s lives. Building on work that is already underway, we can lower costs for families, expand opportunities for workers, protect our air and water, and make state government more efficient. 

As governor, I am focused on building a Michigan with opportunity in every region. To ensure our hardworking people and innovative companies can grow and thrive, we need to use the IRA to lower the cost of doing business.

I am proud of our bipartisan efforts to foster small business growth. Since I took office, my administration has launched dozens of programs to protect jobs and has helped businesses develop in-house talent, expand operations, and connect with customers. By working across the aisle, we cut personal property taxes for small business owners, increased state procurement with small and geographically disadvantaged Michigan businesses and invested heavily in regional economic development. 

With the IRA, we can build on this bipartisan work. We can drive down costs for businesses by helping them to maximize energy efficiency in their operations, by bringing supply chains closer to home to cut down time to market, and by streamlining state permitting processes to move dirt on projects even faster.

My administration is working every day to lower the cost of doing business, and the IRA will empower Michigan businesses.

Acting under sections 1 and 8 of article 5 of the Michigan Constitution of 1963, I direct state departments and autonomous agencies to do all of the following:

1. Departments and agencies must review the IRA and take all appropriate steps, consistent with applicable law, to maximize Michigan’s allocation of federal funds—both formula and discretionary—including through supplying information about funding opportunities to partners that will utilize these dollars to lower their costs.
2. Departments and agencies should identify affected stakeholder communities and conduct outreach to ensure that they are aware of the opportunities to apply for federal funds and, where appropriate, coordinate such applications and opportunities.  The Michigan Economic Development Corporation and other departments and agencies should identify opportunities to connect state resources with the IRA’s resources to lower costs for businesses.
3. To assist businesses in reducing energy and supply chain costs, departments and agencies should support efforts to reduce on-site emissions; retrofit industrial facilities to maximize energy efficiency and process improvements; take full advantage of emerging decarbonization technologies, such as hydrogen; and continue Michigan manufacturers’ leading efforts to decarbonize their supply chains. The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy should identify how to align industry efforts with Michigan’s Combined Heat and Power Roadmap, the Energy Storage Roadmap, and other planning tools that contribute to meeting the goals of the MI Healthy Climate Plan. 
4. The Michigan Infrastructure Office should consider the IRA’s impact on performance management metrics and cadence. To the extent that economic development projects related to the IRA require permits, licenses, approvals, or other actions by the State of Michigan, departments and agencies must make best efforts, consistent with applicable law, to review and act upon applications or requests quickly and efficiently, including by using the process for streamlining permitting set forth in Executive Directive 2022-6. Departments and agencies must make information available about relevant processes and/or timelines to applicants and take appropriate steps, consistent with applicable law, to avoid duplication, streamline processes, and/or share information to expedite their review. Departments and agencies should also coordinate efforts to engage in federal advocacy around key projects and permits.
   
   

Click to view the full PDF of the executive directive.