Michigan Needs Utility Accountability Now
Michigan has some of the worst utility reliability in the country and the highest prices — make that make sense.
DTE and Consumers Energy are regulated utility monopolies in Michigan, meaning that their rates are governed by the state and they don’t face any competition providing energy to the overwhelming majority of Michiganders. As regulated monopolies, the two companies are allowed to ask state energy regulators to raise our energy bills once a year, and they both consistently take full advantage of that privilege.
State regulators recently granted both DTE Energy and Consumers Energy permission to raise our energy bills…again. It was DTE’s fourth rate hike in five years, and Consumers Energy’s largest in more than two decades — this time the rate hikes totaled over half a billion dollars.
This week, just two months after its latest rate hike was approved, DTE asked for another massive $470+ million rate hike. DTE claims they won’t ask for more until 2028, but only if a controversial, large-scale data center in Saline Township is allowed to move forward. Michiganders are not going to be held hostage by greedy corporations for a data center. This multi-billion dollar data center, developed by OpenAI and Oracle Corporation, could hit our pockets, harm the environment, and impede the state’s progress toward a clean energy future.
While Michigan workers and families struggle to afford groceries, make rent on time, and pay for the ever-rising costs of utilities, these two companies’ profits continue to soar, raking in over $1B each in 2025. On a February earnings call, DTE’s CEO said the quiet part out loud when he attributed the company’s financial success (seems like a serious understatement) to the rate hikes. While these big corporations and their CEOs line their pockets, Michiganders foot the bill.
If these companies are supposed to be regulated by the state, why aren’t they actually regulated? DTE and Consumers Energy hire expensive lawyers and consultants, with the money utility users pay, to argue for their rate hikes. These companies are using the money of hardworking Michiganders against us to make our energy bills cost more.
In return, Michiganders get some of the worst utility reliability in the country for the highest costs. Michigan has the longest power outages on average of any state in the nation, leaving families and small businesses in the dark for days (and sometimes weeks) at a time each year.
Unaffordable energy bills are a growing issue for Michiganders and our elected officials in Lansing should be prioritizing it. Fortunately, some lawmakers are outlining solutions. A package of bills called the Ratepayer Bill of Rights was introduced last year and would ban political donations from monopoly utility companies, protect people from rising costs, poor service, unfair outage compensation practices, and excessive utility CEO compensation and perks.
These greedy utility corporations donate millions of dollars to Michigan lawmakers on both sides of the aisle each election cycle. Not to mention, both DTE and Consumers Energy run shadow nonprofits to pour additional millions of dollars into lawmaker-aligned accounts. If this sounds sketchy to you, it’s because it is.
Right now Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) is working to get a measure on the November 2026 ballot that would also ban political donations from monopoly utility companies. Our elected officials work for us, the voters, not these corporations. You can sign onto this and help get MMOP on the ballot and money out of politics in Lansing by clicking here.
Here in Michigan, we are facing an affordability crisis and energy costs are a major problem. It’s time for elected officials in Lansing to step up and take real action to address this issue on behalf of Michiganders. That starts with doing a better job of holding DTE and Consumers Energy accountable.
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