Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a briefing, asking the Michigan Public Service Commission to take a massive cut from DTE's latest rate hike request.
In April, DTE asked the Michigan Public Service Commission to approve a $474 million rate hike request, just months after a nearly $250 million increase went into effect.
The attorney general is asking the MPSC to cut the proposed rate hike by 71%, which would be an increase of around $137.5 million.
“Throughout my nearly 8 years in office, DTE and Consumers Energy have consistently inflated their rate hike requests with unjustified costs,” Nessel said in a statement. “This latest filing is no different. Over the past 15 years, DTE’s rates and capital expenditures have spiked significantly, driving massive corporate earnings for shareholders rather than grid reliability for Michiganders. That’s long been their entire business model, and the MPSC is happily helping them along at the expense of ratepayers.”
Normally, the MPSC approves a rate hike below what is requested from the utility company.
After the request came through in April, we spoke with people about their thoughts.
The proposal is receiving strong pushback from an independent utility watchdog and metro Detroit residents who say the plan is overpriced and unfair to customers.
"**** outta here," Dimitrius Murphy said upon hearing DTE was seeking a $474 million rate increase.
"They're nickel and diming us so much," Tuawana Meadows said. "It's a terrible thing that they keep hiking the rates on us and people are not getting more money. I mean, it's really hard out here."
"The fact that they keep going up and everything else, they're just trying to make it difficult for the average person out here just trying to make a way for themselves. So it's a tough thing and they definitely make enough money cause I know my bill be high as hell," Murphy said.
DTE says it would pause additional rate hikes until at least 2028 if the Saline data center it is supporting is up and running by late next year and another is approved.
The Citizens Utility Board, which represents the interests of residential energy customers across the state, is urging the MPSC to deny the rate hike.
"They're going to have automatic increases in 2028 of $154 million, $227.8 million in 2029 and $318 million in 2030," Chris Bzdok, a lawyer for the Citizens Utility Board, said. "A lot of it is driven by an increase in profit margin that they're requesting, an increase in their return on equity that goes to Wall Street shareholders. There's about $100 million there."
"A lot of it is driven based on projects that have been found in, in prior cases not to be cost effective," Bzdok continued. "Make them go back, make them be more efficient — make them. Do not even entertain an increase in the size of the return on equity or the shareholder profit margin. Decrease that and only approve expenditures on projects that have been proven to be cost effective," Bzdok said.
DTE says data center projects are expected to contribute $9 billion to upgrading the electric system, reducing the amount needed from other customers.
“That’s why we’re excited to see the expected benefits of responsible data center development come to fruition,” DTE CEO Joi Harris said. “This new industry is not only helping to grow Michigan’s economy — once the data centers are fully online, it will make energy more affordable for all customers while bolstering our investments in creating the grid of the future."
DTE says it is committed to keeping its customers’ bills as low as possible while continuing to make upgrades that improve reliability.
