On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed her notice of intervention in DTE Electric’s (DTE) latest rate case (U-21534) before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). DTE’s application and testimony request an annual increase of more than $450 million which, if approved, would take effect in January of 2025. This rate hike request comes a mere four months (118 days) after DTE received authority to increase its rates by $368 million, a move that cost the average residential customer $100 or more per year. With this latest filing, DTE is seeking to effectively raise its annual rates by more than $800 million in a period of 13 months.
Nessel intends to intervene in this rate case as she does in all utility rate increase requests before the MPSC. The Department of Attorney General has invested hours analyzing, consulting experts over, and responding to DTE’s incessant rate increase requests, and while her advocacy has helped save customers billions, these hundred-million-dollar rate cases are accumulating, per the Department’s preliminary analysis, in an unprecedented fashion toward unsustainable electric bills.
Not all the details of DTE’s most recent price spike request are known at this early juncture, but as she has in every rate case, the attorney general and her team will carefully scrutinize the filing to ensure customers do not pay additional costs without commensurate, quantifiable benefits. In recent rate hike requests, DTE has attempted to pass such costs on to consumers and, when challenged by the Attorney General, has often failed to justify the undue burdens or even attempt to explain the costs to the MPSC.
“This latest rate hike request from DTE is, frankly, absurd in both the astounding dollars and obnoxious timing—requesting yet another $450 million not even four months since their last rate hike was approved,” said Nessel. “DTE is following their usual playbook, incessant and oppressive rate hike requests not grounded in reality, but rather based on the financial aspirations of their corporate shareholders. And DTE demands the money without implementing any corresponding accountability or reliability metrics and measures. DTE’s captive ratepayers in Detroit and elsewhere deserve better than this exploitation, where the utility baselessly demands more and more from their customers without promising anything in return by way of increased reliability or accountability."
Nessel intends to intervene in this rate case as she does in all utility rate increase requests before the MPSC. The Department of Attorney General has invested hours analyzing, consulting experts over, and responding to DTE’s incessant rate increase requests, and while her advocacy has helped save customers billions, these hundred-million-dollar rate cases are accumulating, per the Department’s preliminary analysis, in an unprecedented fashion toward unsustainable electric bills.
Not all the details of DTE’s most recent price spike request are known at this early juncture, but as she has in every rate case, the attorney general and her team will carefully scrutinize the filing to ensure customers do not pay additional costs without commensurate, quantifiable benefits. In recent rate hike requests, DTE has attempted to pass such costs on to consumers and, when challenged by the Attorney General, has often failed to justify the undue burdens or even attempt to explain the costs to the MPSC.
“This latest rate hike request from DTE is, frankly, absurd in both the astounding dollars and obnoxious timing—requesting yet another $450 million not even four months since their last rate hike was approved,” said Nessel. “DTE is following their usual playbook, incessant and oppressive rate hike requests not grounded in reality, but rather based on the financial aspirations of their corporate shareholders. And DTE demands the money without implementing any corresponding accountability or reliability metrics and measures. DTE’s captive ratepayers in Detroit and elsewhere deserve better than this exploitation, where the utility baselessly demands more and more from their customers without promising anything in return by way of increased reliability or accountability."
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