When are we going to show up with pitchforks? Why we need to actively resist the electric utility rate hike that was just given to Consumer’s Energy in Michigan

Consumers Energy gets permission for largest electric rate increase in decades! This was the headline for an MLive article from Saturday, March 28th.

I know that my electricity bill has increased by $40 a month in the last year and now the government regulatory entity, the Michigan Public Service Commission, has given Consumer’s Energy the green light to charge even more. Think of how these increases will impact families across the state, especially since we know that 41% of people in Michigan are living paycheck to paycheck.

The MLive article is primarily a justification for the increase in electric utility costs, with members of the Michigan Public Service Commission and Michigan politicians acting as apologists for the increase.

As of this writing there have been no comments made by Michigan Legislators regarding the electricity rate hike, besides the weak comments from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Of course Michigan politicians are not going to be critical of electricity rate hike from Consumer’s Energy, especially since 70% or them receive campaign funding from Consumer’s and DTE.

The other major flaw in the commercial news media coverage was how these kinds of utility rate hikes impact working class families, particularly BIPOC customers, as GRIID noted about a year ago in a post based on a Press Conference hosted by the Urban Core Collective.

“Besides the less than transparent regulatory process, there are also concerns surrounding reliability and disproportionate disconnection rates tied to race. Consumers Energy ranks among the lowest performers nationwide when it comes to reliability, but most alarming are the systematic disconnections disproportionately targeting BIPOC communities. In his rebuttal testimony to the Michigan Public Service Commission, Boratha Tan on behalf of the Ecology Center, The Environmental Law & Policy Center, The Union of Concerned Scientists and Vote Solar, found a direct correlation between the percentage of people of color living in a census-tract and disconnections by Consumers Energy, even when the area median income was the same. In 2023 “census tracts with a 100% BIPOC population would experience about 120 more residential disconnections compared to a 0% BIPOC population census tract with the same income level.” In other words (using Consumers Energy’s own data), disconnections happen more often in BIPOC communities than in non-BIPOC communities, even when both communities have the same income level.”

Another significant omission in the Consumer’s rate hike coverage has been the failure to look at the three members of the Michigan Public Service Commission. All three members are political or corporate insiders. According to the bio for Commissioner Dan Scripps, “he worked with state and national clean energy trade and philanthropic organizations and practiced law in the Washington D.C. office of a leading global law firm, where he advised regulated utilities, project developers, and financial institutions on cutting edge domestic and international energy projects.”

Commissioner Peretick previously served as Director of Engineering at NRStor Inc., an international energy storage project developer, and Commissioner Myers led former Speaker Joe Tate’s office as chief of staff.

People from all over the state might consider showing up to the next Michigan Public Service Commission meeting, which will be held on April 17th in Lansing. Details can be found here.

However, instead of simply voicing concerns how about if people show up to disrupt the meeting unless public demands are met. A good example would be when people attended Michigan Department of Natural Resources land auction in 2012, because that governmental body was planning on leasing mineral rights for oil & gas companies across the state. We need to start showing up to these meetings with pitchforks or whatever contemporary instruments would be appropriate today.