(The Center Square) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she will look carefully at a planned nearly $600 million energy rate hike for consumers.
DTE wants the Michigan Public Service Commission to approve the $574 million increase three months after it blessed a $217 million jump in energy prices.
DTE provides electricity to about 2.3 million customers in southeast Michigan and natural gas to another 1.3 million.
“My office will carefully scrutinize this rate hike request, just like we have with every other one, to ensure DTE isn’t padding our bills with bloated or unjustified expenses that do nothing to improve reliability and only serve to fatten the wallets of their executives and shareholders,” Nessel said in a statement.
Michigan already ranks as one of the most expensive states in the nation for electricity costs, coming in with the 13th-highest retail price for electricity in the country, according to a December report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which looked at the average retail price of electricity for the residential sector.
Other reports have also found that the electrical grid in the state also struggles with frequent and prolonged outages.
“Just three months after the MPSC approved a $217 million rate hike, DTE is already back, asking for nearly $600 million more from ratepayers still very dissatisfied with the quality of service they receive,” Nessel said. “At some point, we have to ask how long utility companies like DTE and Consumers Energy will be allowed to treat customer bills and our energy rates like a blank check.”
In March, Consumers Energy received the go-ahead for a $154 million rate hike after the MPSC approved a $92 million increase in March 2023.
Consumers is Michigan’s largest energy provider, providing natural gas and electricity to 6.8 million of the state’s 10 million residents in the 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
