By Attorney General Dana Nessel
LANSING — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is reaffirming her commitment to stand up for Michigan utility customers by announcing she will intervene in the latest Consumers Energy rate hike case brought before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Yesterday, Consumers Energy filed an application seeking to raise electric rates by approximately $456 million annually. The utility is also seeking an additional 12-month surcharge of $25 million, an additional $52 million over three years for storm restoration expenses, and the continuation and expansion of the Investment Recovery Mechanism approved in its last rate case. At its requested amount, Consumers Energy seeks to hike residential electric rates by 9.8%. This rate hike request comes less than three months after the utility received approval for a $217 million increase.
“Consumers Energy and DTE keep demanding more and more money, the MPSC continues to reward their incessant demands, and the cycle of constant, growing rate hikes are pushing Michigan families and businesses to the brink,” said Attorney General Nessel. “My office will intervene in this case as we always do, but we already know the predictable pattern likely to play out: Consumers Energy loads its rate hike request with completely unsupported, inflated costs, and the MPSC simply splits the difference. Michiganders are facing an affordability crisis, and our utility companies are recording record profits.”
Since 2020, the MPSC has approved nearly $800 million in rate hikes for Consumers Energy, which sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state.
The Attorney General has saved Michigan consumers more than $4.6 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. Recent rate hike requests from DTE and Consumers Energy have included such inappropriate costs as private jet travel for executive staff, millions in incentive compensation tied to maximizing shareholder returns, and other unsupported expenditures that could not be demonstrated to be reasonable or prudent. Other rate hike cases currently open before the MPSC include Consumers Energy’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21981), DTE’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21973) and electric rate hike request (U-22046), SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s natural gas rate hike request (U-22002), and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric rate hike request (U-22032).