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LINK TO VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/planetdetroitnews/videos/6052050251490774/

Planet Detroit’s editor Nina Ignaczak spoke with We the People Research Director and Alex B. Hill and consultant Jackson Koeppel, co-authors of the policy brief Utility Redlining: Distribution in the DTE Service Area. We will also be joined by Shawn Patterson, DTE’s vice president of Environmental Management and Safety.

Topics of discussion included:

  • What is “utility redlining” and what evidence do we have that it is happening in DTE’s service territory?
  • DTE’s proposal to increase residential rates by 8.8%
  • How DTE handled this recent outage and its reliability profile
  • How equity can better inform/ factor into DTE’s future services and operations

Panel:

  • Alex B. Hill, Research Director for We the People Michigan
  • Jackson Koeppel, independent consultant
  • Shawn Patterson, DTE’s vice president of Environmental Management and Safety

Moderated by Nina Ignaczak, Editor, Planet Detroit and Michigan Climate News

Relevant reporting

Detroiters call on regulators to reject DTE’s rate hike, cite ‘utility redlining’

Regulators order DTE, Consumers to increase transparency around electric service reliability

Nina Misuraca Ignaczak is an award-winning Metro Detroit-based editor, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. She is the founder, publisher, and editor of Planet Detroit, a digital media startup focused on producing quality climate, equity, health, and environment journalism that centers grassroots voices, holds power accountable, and spotlights solutions. Planet Detroit has received awards and recognition from the Society for Professional Journalists Detroit, the Institute for Nonprofit News, and LION Publishers since its establishment in 2019. Prior to her journalism career, Nina worked in urban planning in local government and nonprofit sectors, holding a Master of Science in Natural Resource Ecology and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.