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The Union of Concerned Scientists has a new study that argues that the incredibly complex wholesale electricity markets in the U.S. have loopholes that are creating heavy costs for ratepayers of regulated electric utilities like DTE Energy and Consumers Energy. This is a very complicated issue that is indecipherable for many people (as is common in utility manners). But

Anyone who has looked into how utility rates are set has found out that it can be one of the driest, most jargon-filled subject matters around. Because they are so unfriendly to the layperson, utility topics are prone to misinterpretation when talked about in plain English. An example is DTE’s recent announcement that it is passing $30

The Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) May 8 order on DTE Energy’s rate increase request could be one of the most important decisions the commission makes this year. It signals that a big change might be coming in the relationship between regulators and investor-owned utilities. The MPSC ordered a major investor-owned utility to propose a system of

The public health and economic crisis we are all experiencing is like no other in recent history. Such an extreme event requires an extraordinary response. In the world of utilities, all over the country electricity and natural gas suppliers are taking the rare step of suspending disconnections of service for non-payment and waiving late fees

The long road for the immediate future of Michigan’s largest utility is over, for now. On April 15, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a revised version of DTE Energy’s integrated resource plan (IRP), the utility’s plan for the mix of coal, natural gas, solar, wind, energy efficiency and other resources it will use to

The Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force has submitted to Governor Whitmer its formal recommendations on how to avoid a propane crisis in the region, where over 18% of households use propane, primarily for heating, compared to just under 8% for the Lower Peninsula. The final recommendations are very similar to the draft recommendations we discussed in a recent

The Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force just finished accepting comments on its draft report about how to supply the UP with propane given the possibility of supply disruption. Over 1,000 discrete comments have poured in on the task force’s work since it began, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) Director Liesl Eichler

Public comments have closed on the Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force’s draft report on how to avoid price spikes in propane used across the UP for heating, especially in the case of a Line 5 shutdown. (Links to our previous blog posts are here, here, here, here and the first here. All of the public comments submitted on draft report will be

Percentage of Households with Propane, Draft of “Analysis of Propane Supply Alternatives for Michigan,” Public Sector Consultants, March 2020 The developing coronavirus crisis shows how everyday life can be upended by low-probability events. In energy, people are always talking about the importance of “resiliency.” Resiliency essentially means a system’s ability to respond to many different

Last summer the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan wrote about how a utility’s integrated resource plan (IRP) is an important roadmap for the future of the business and its customers. DTE’s long-term plan, proposed last year, could force its 2.2 million customers in southeast Michigan to pay millions on their electric bills for power plants that may