Warren mayor: Car plant closings avoided gas shut off to entire city
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2019/01/31/warren-gas-shutoff-cold/2729902002/Jan. 31, 2019
...Fouts said the threatened shutoff was avoided — "at least at this time" — when General Motors and Chrysler, which have large facilities in Warren, late Wednesday night agreed to shut down for a few days.
"Awoken at about 12:30 AM to an official call that there is a complete threatened shut off of all gas power to the city of Warren today due to a fire at a Consumers facility," Fouts posted. "However, they have arranged to have GM and Chrysler shut down for a few days to avoid that dire situation. At least at this time."
"There was possibility that all power would be shut off at 7 AM this morning," he continued. "I'm thankful that will not happen at this time now."...
...In a statement this morning, FCA said, "due to Consumers Energy’s request to reduce natural gas use, FCA US has cancelled the first shifts of production for Thursday, January 31, at its Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly Plants. Second shift employees are asked to stay tuned for more information as the company continues to monitor the situation."
In a later post, Fouts said he laid awake "most of the night thinking of how would we care for over 100,000 people with warmth. Especially since our warming centers both open could not house the large number of people in need but we certainly would have tried."
Fouts called the threatened shutoff at a time when temperatures are subzero a wake-up call "of how critical our energy needs are and how we could be completely without power with only a short notice in the wee hours of the night."...
