Michigan is the 46th worst state in the nation in overall minutes of outages and we’re the 48th worst in time to restore power. Consumers Energy is in the bottom 15 of companies nationally when it comes to reliability.”
Citing statistics from the Citizens Utility Board report, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel vows her office will counter Consumers’ request for the largest increase in 20 years at $436 million, a request that comes on the heels of the utility receiving $154 million from the last electric rate hike just over a week ago.
“What I find disturbing is they haven’t even started spending the money from the last rate increase. How do they know? How can they project that now they’ll need this biggest rate increase ever?”
Michigan law allows the utility company to request a rate increase only once every 12 months.
Nessel points out that for the sixth year in a row, Consumers Energy made its request to regulators as soon as it was possible.
The A.G.’s office will take its case to the Michigan Public Service Commission, arguing the rate increase isn’t merited because Consumers has failed to improve reliability with money from previous increases.
“It hasn’t made electricity more affordable but what it does do is increase corporate profits, increase shareholder dividends and increase executive salaries and bonuses for people who work for Consumers Energy.”
The rate hike requested would increase residential customer bills by roughly 13% a month.
