In a heated public hearing Wednesday at Mumford High School, metro Detroit residents, Detroit ratepayers and advocacy groups demanded state regulators deny DTE Energy’s proposed $456.4 million rate increase.
The 10% rate increase would amount to $135 per year for the average customer, according to DTE.
Several hundred people attended the meeting and over 45 spoke, mostly against the rate hike. Ratepayers complained of rising costs from past hikes, peak hour rate increases, and power outages that forced them to replace the food in their refrigerators and pay for hotels. As the meeting progressed, speakers expressing support for the rate increase were occasionally booed and chants of “No more rate hikes” and “People over profit” echoed through the auditorium.
The Michigan Public Service Commission held its first hearing over a rate case two years ago. This meeting follows passage of 2023 legislation that requires the agency to hold four public meetings a year and consider climate, environmental justice and affordability in long-term decision-making.
However, MPSC Chair Dan Scripps said commission members could not base decisions on the comments they heard Wednesday night like they would with testimony filed as part of the rate case.
“Unlike the evidence that’s part of the record, we’re not able to actually base a decision on comments,” Scripps told the crowd. “They’re not subject to cross examination and the other sort of rigors, but it gives a sense of where the community is and I think that’s valuable as well.”
Northwest Detroit resident Emma Harris told Planet Detroit that she hadn’t attended an MPSC hearing before and was there to push back on regular rate increases and ongoing reliability issues.
Harris spent around $600 to stay in a hotel during the ice storm that knocked out power for days in 2023 and around $1,500 replacing food that spoiled in her refrigerator during recent power outages. She expressed doubt that DTE would use the money from another increase to improve reliability.
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“Didn’t they get an increase a couple of years ago,” she said. “What have (they) done with that?”
DTE’s last electric rate hike was in 2023, when the MPSC granted a $368 million increase. This was a 40% reduction from the $622 million the utility requested. In 2022, the commission approved a roughly $30 million electric rate increase, a 90% reduction from the $388 million DTE requested.
Supporters say rate hike is needed to fix Detroit’s grid
In its rate case filing, DTE emphasized that the requested rate hike is necessary for investments in electric distribution and clean energy infrastructure. The company argues these investments would modernize the grid and increase reliability, with a promise to reduce power outages by 30% and shorten their duration by 50% within five years.
Union members, businesses, pastors and leaders of nonprofits who have worked with DTE praised the company’s outreach work and said the rate hike was needed to prevent outages.
Rev. Horace Sheffield, CEO of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, whose website lists DTE as a corporate sponsor and partner, said the utility is a Detroit company that employs a significant number of African Americans and invests in Black businesses.
“I’m in favor of this rate increase to rebuild the infrastructure,” Sheffield said. “Clean energy, efficiency, reliability, all the things that we’re concerned about, I think are addressed in this rate increase.”
Detroiters say a DTE rate hike would exacerbate affordability problems
Speakers at the hearing drew the commission’s attention to Detroiters’ ongoing struggles with paying high utility bills while trying to keep up with rising food prices, property taxes, and other expenses. Some said that a public utility should replace DTE. They argued companies shouldn’t be able to profit off energy, which they said is a human right like water.
Detroit City Councilmember Mary Waters said she is constantly fielding calls from constituents choosing between paying their utility bills and purchasing food and medicine.
“I don’t know where to turn, how to get them the help that they need,” she said.
Waters said the MPSC should reject the rate increase outright. She added that DTE should share their billions in profits with customers and send them a rebate.
Meku Baron-Galbavi, who works on housing issues in Detroit, said an income-based affordability plan for utility customers, similar to Detroit’s Lifeline Plan for water assistance, was needed.
Michigan’s State Emergency Relief program, which helps residents with utility bills, home repairs, and other expenses, ran out of funding for the fiscal year in July. Applications for the assistance program will reopen in October.
Detroit resident Khary Frazier told the commissioners that a rate hike would put added strain on families who were already unable to pay their current bills.
“One could say it’s only going to be a couple of cents up, but when those cents already don’t exist,” he said.
Nessel and advocacy groups push back on rate hike
Opposition to the increase has been widespread among local advocacy groups like Soulardarity, the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which have issued testimony and public statements highlighting the costs that the rate hike would impose on already overburdened communities.
In July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel submitted testimony in the rate case recommending a reduction of DTE’s rate increase request by nearly $294 million, citing concerns about the high cost of energy, reliability issues, and the disproportionate impact the hike would have on low-income residents.
CUB criticized DTE’s plan to split storm recovery costs with ratepayers, claiming this would shift too much risk onto customers and raise their costs in the long run. In its testimony, the organization highlighted DTE’s poor track record in storm response, noting that the company consistently ranks among the worst utilities for outage duration and frequency.
“Granting this rate increase would only heighten the burden on folks who already struggle with utility bills,” Andrea Pierce, policy director for MEJC, said in a press release. “(A)nd it would further reward a company that has done nothing but exploit our communities with high rates, shoddy service, dirty generation, and a systematic lack of investment in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities.”
On Wednesday night, Andrew Kaplowitz, organizing director for MEJC, said that the commission’s newly legislated powers to consider climate, environmental justice and affordability in the decision-making process, should empower it to reject the rate hike.
“Now that you have these cool, new leveled up super-powers, do something,” he said.
A final decision on the rate hike may not come until next year. DTE filed its rate case on March 28 and the MPSC has 10 months to reach a decision.
Isabelle Tavares contributed reporting to this article.