Power outage listening tour opportunity for Michigan families to challenge DTE, Consumers Energy for lack of reliability
Attorney General’s first stop today in Novi
NOVI – The Michigan League of Conservation Voters today urged nearly 1 million people who lost power during recent outages to share their stories by participating in a listening tour hosted by Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Nessel, along with Novi Mayor Bob Gatt and Novi City Manager Pete Auger, will hold an open session to hear residents’ concerns from 6:30-8 p.m. TODAY, Monday, Sept. 20 at the Novi Civic Center, 45175 West 10 Mile Road.
“Our state’s big utility monopolies are failing families and businesses, and we call upon leaders to halt any further rate increases on families until we get answers,” said Bob Allison, deputy director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “DTE and Consumers have used their high-paid lobbyists to push through nearly $1 Billion in rate increases over the past six years while paying out more than $10 million to their CEOs and raking in windfall profits. Meanwhile, Michiganders are left in the dark. It’s high time for leaders in Lansing to hold DTE and Consumers accountable for their failure to provide affordable, reliable power to the people of Michigan.”
In August, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters launched a petition calling on state leaders to put a moratorium on all rate increases for utility customers until there is an independent investigation into the utility companies’ reliability failures. Since launching, nearly 500 Michigan residents have signed the petition.
Residents should consider the following facts:
- In the last five years, DTE Energy has jacked up rates to the tune of $775 million with little improvements to service while Consumers Energy is currently proposing a $225 million rate increase — just months after they hiked our rates this past January.
- While DTE had profits of $1.4 billion and Consumers Energy’s parent company, CMS, raking in $680 million, Michigan ratepayers are experiencing unreliable service. More than 800,000 Michiganders lost power during recent storms and the utilities are now saying customers will have to file paperwork to receive a small credit for their troubles.
- Media reports show that DTE and Consumers Energy paid no federal taxes in 2020, with utility spokespersons saying it would ultimately trickle down into savings to customers. Last year, both Consumers Energy and DTE spent more than $10 million paying their CEOs.
- The Detroit News exposed that 140 out of 146 Michigan lawmakers received some kind of campaign donation from DTE or Consumers Energy, while the monopoly utilities funneled $55 million to political and civic spending.
