LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Government regulators are never in the running for congeniality awards.
That may especially be true for the man charged with overseeing permits for new power plants, mines and large-scale livestock operations in Michigan.
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Steven Chester says some of the most contentious issues facing his department right now are plans to build the first new coal-fired power plants in the state in nearly 20 years.
He calls the unresolved debate in the state Legislature over energy legislation a "little disquieting" because it leaves the state without a framework for choosing among competing proposals.
"We find ourselves in a very awkward place," Chester told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The DEQ has received requests for air quality permits that energy companies need to build four proposed coal plants -- three of them large enough to draw a lot of interest when the public weighs in later this year. Three other proposed plants have not yet applied for permits.
"There simply isn't an environmental law that exists presently that allows us to pick and choose or say that we simply don't need this many coal plants," Chester says. "So we've got to deal with them one at a time, and we're trying to do the best we can."
He hopes the Legislature provides more guidance soon by giving electricity regulators the authority to approve plants based on Michigan's power needs and goals. Under that scenario, environmental regulators would continue handling pollution permits.
Climate change, or global warming, has "changed the dynamic completely" since the state last got a plant in 1990, Chester says. Large plants capable of running continuously rather than just during periods of peak demand can cost $2 billion a piece to build, one reason the last big power plant capable of running 24/7 came on line in 1984.
Coal has been a relatively cheap source of fuel to generate electricity in Michigan, but concerns over the emissions coal-fired plants put out and talk of requiring such plants to buy carbon credits at some point has prompted debate over how many coal-fired plants the state should have and whether new ones will supply electricity as cheaply as supporters say.
Chester says environmentalists almost certainly will sue if his agency issues air quality permits for new coal plants. The Sierra Club already is challenging the DEQ's recent approval of a small coal boiler at Northern Michigan University.
Environmentalists also want Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm to freeze construction of what they refer to as "outdated" coal plants until legislation is passed requiring that more of the state's electricity be cleaner and greener, generated by wind turbines or other alternatives.
Power plants are among many thorny issues facing Chester, who was named by Granholm to run the department at the start of her first term in 2003.
The DEQ recently denied a proposal for a proposed Bustorf Dairy large-scale livestock farm because of concerns over water pollution. That led the Michigan Farm Bureau and other groups to accuse the agency of being unable to objectively handle agricultural matters and hampering economic growth.
It was the first time the state denied a discharge permit for a "concentrated animal feeding operation," or CAFO. Chester notes that the DEQ has approved 160 permits and denied just one since CAFOs began needing DEQ approval last year.
CAFOs have become a target of homeowners and environmentalists who accuse them of fouling the air and degrading streams when manure spread on fields flows into waterways during rainfalls. Bustorf Dairy is appealing the decision and submitting a new application after redesigning its proposal.
Fears that the DEQ set a significant precedent in turning down Bustorf Dairy's request are unfounded, Chester says, because proposed large-scale feeding farms are considered on a case-by-case basis. A broader lawsuit challenging farm regulations is pending in the courts.
Although a Republican senator in 2006 questioned Chester's integrity and accused DEQ workers of acting in a "Gestapo-like fashion," Chester takes it in stride when lawmakers express frustration with the way businesses and other institutions in their districts are treated by the department.
"Most legislators do appreciate the fact that there is a legitimate role for the department to play," he says, adding that lawmakers often only hear from constituents on the losing end of regulatory decisions.
Chester says the department has made major improvements in how quickly it processes air and water pollution permits. Of the 6,000 to 7,000 land and water permits reviewed in a year, 2 percent are denied.
When he took the job, there had been complaints of it taking more than a year to get a permit. Now it takes an average of less than two months, Chester says.
"There is no other permit process that we administer that comes close to the economic impact that the air permitting program has," he says.
Chester thinks his agency spends too much time reviewing and issuing permits when it should be more focused on environmental inspections and compliance. But permit fees generate revenue and make up an increasingly larger portion of the DEQ budget because the department gets less money from the state's general fund.
Although the department's budget used to be funded about equally by permit fees, federal dollars and the general fund, more than half of the department's revenue will come from fees alone when the next budget year begins Oct. 1.
Both the business and environmental communities agree the DEQ should not become a fee-for-service agency, Chester says.
"The business community sees it as a tax," he says, while "the environmental community is concerned we're not spending enough time administering the laws."