- Attorney General Dana Nessel says she plans to intervene in DTE’s latest attempt at a rate increase
- The company is seeking a $456.4 million rate hike, which would cost residential customers an extra $11 a month on average
- Its request comes months after the company was approved for a $368 million rate increase that went into effect in December
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a notice of intervention with the Michigan Public Service Commission in response to DTE Energy’s latest attempt to increase rates.
The Detroit-based company is seeking an increase of $456.4 million. If approved, the rate increase would be effective starting in January 2025. The utility’s request comes just months after the MPSC approved a $368 million rate increase for DTE, which went into effect in December.
DTE says it needs the additional revenue to fund infrastructure investments that will reduce outages and to bring “cleaner energy faster to the state.” It said the rate increase would cost residential customers less than 37 cents per day on average, which is roughly $11 per month.
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“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 in a press statement.
“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.”
While the attorney general does have the authority to intervene in such cases the MPSC is an independent government agency.
DTE provides electricity to roughly 2 million customers in southeast Michigan and gas to over 1 million customers across the state.
“DTE Energy will reduce power outages by 30 percent and cut outage time in half over the next five years, all while keeping customer bills below the national average,” DTE told Bridge in an emailed statement.
“We are committed to giving our customers the reliable and affordable energy they deserve.”
This is outrageous they implemented daily rates by 3%. Nothing is mentioned here about the prime hour increases of 30% during the week which is during prime hours when people get home from work. This is nothing but greed!!!
It is time to control this company by removing the authority of the MPSC to approve rate increases and return that “approval power” to the people who use DTE’s services, via a public vote/ referendum. If DTE wants more than one rate hike per year, let them pay for the extra ballot initiatives. When you own a business, you budget for your own “improvements and expansions”… you don’t spend whatever you wish and send the bill to your customers… and you don’t expect them to pay more to expand your profit margin. Michigan also needs to bring in some serious competition for these services. Monopolies always breed greed and price gouging… like “time of day” metering that harms citizens – both financially and healthwise.
DTE has been charging whatever they wanted at 15467 Heyden for many years. We have filed complaints about observably high bills, but nothing has been done. At one point, they alleged charged approx. $4,000 at this home. After complaint, it was temporarily dropped. They just broke it down in smaller amounts, and still collected. A DTE worker that came out a few years back, said there has not been a working meter at heyden since the 1980’s. That was around the time they installed a new box on the front of the house, and removed the one out of the house. The DTE workers that installed the new boxes said they were installing them, because they were installing a new grid for everyone. Whey didn’t they install all over. Are we paying for other people in the neighborhood’s utility bill? Is that why it’s always so high? I just know something is terribly wrong, and no one is doing anything about it. Now, once again, they are threatening to cut off service.