The case was originally filed in mid-2022, where DTE cited an under-recovery from customers and sought to recoup those costs. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office later discovered that DTE was requesting to charge residential customers more than $650,000 to recover fees it lost when it decided to waive certain financial penalties for several large transportation companies who used their services.
In her testimony, Attorney General Dana Nessel argued that it would be improper to charge residential customers for those costs, and that if DTE wanted to waive those fees, its company shareholders that should bear the cost, not its customers. The Administrative Law Judge in charge of the case agreed and upheld Nessel’s recommendation.
In a statement, Nessel said that it was important to “ensure ratepayers are not being asked to pay for costs that are wholly unrelated to the service they receive.”
DTE provides natural gas to 1.3 million customers across the state and electricity to approximately 2.2 million customers in Southeast Michigan.
