By Attorney General Dana Nessel
LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed testimony (PDF) yesterday in Consumers Energy’s latest natural gas rate hike case, urging the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to slash the utility’s $240 million rate hike request by more than $146 million. The 61% reduction would save Michigan families and small businesses millions.
The utility’s rate hike request, filed in December 2025, came less than three months after it received approval from the MPSC to hike natural gas rates by $157.5 million. If approved, residential customers would face an 8% hike in their bills and an increase in their monthly service charge.
Attorney General Nessel implores the MPSC to allow less than half of Consumers Energy’s proposed rate hike. The Department of Attorney General found several instances within the rate hike application where Consumers Energy inflated capital spending projections and included for themselves unreasonable profit margins. The Attorney General also calls on the MPSC to not increase monthly service charges for Consumers Energy customers and reject the utility’s request to force its ratepayers to pay for the utility’s lost revenue during warmer months and sales losses through a Revenue Decoupling Mechanism.
“As always, Consumers Energy has stuffed its rate hike request with ridiculous, overstated costs,” said Attorney General Nessel. “By now, we should all be exhausted by this predictable pattern of greed, and complete disregard for the Michigan utility customer. We already know how this process ends. The MPSC will almost certainly split the difference between our recommendation and Consumers Energy’s rate hike request to appease the utility, but where does that leave families bled for more every year? The MPSC has allowed nearly $800 million in annual revenue increases for Consumers Energy since 2019. The system itself is fundamentally broken. While Michigan families and small businesses struggle to keep the heat on, Consumers Energy stakeholders are making money hand over fist.”
If the MPSC adopts all of the Attorney General’s recommendations, the proposed 10% overall rate hike would be slashed to approximately 3.5%, saving ratepayers more than $146 million in additional costs.
Since taking office, the Attorney General has helped save Michigan consumers more than $4.1 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. Other rate hike cases currently open before the MPSC include DTE’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21973), SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s gas rate hike request (U-22002), and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric rate hike request (U-22032). Both DTE and Consumers Energy have also submitted filing announcements, announcing their intent to file electric rate hike requests later this year.
Consumers Energy sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state.