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OVEC’s Kyger Creek coal plant

CUB Saves Indiana Michigan Power Ratepayers On Overpriced Coal Plant Power Purchases

The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB)—working with the Michigan Attorney General and the Sierra Club—was successful in saving Michigan ratepayers more than $3 million through intervention in a Power Supply Cost Recovery (PSCR) case before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). The case, U-21262, involved requests from Indiana Michigan Power Company (I&M) to recover

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CUB Advocates for Unconditional Shutoff Moratorium

Earlier this year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) reopened Case No. U-20140 to review extreme weather condition policies that were established by each of Michigan’s regulated utilities in 2018. These policies are meant to protect Michigan households by providing criteria for the suspension of disconnections during periods of “extreme hot and cold weather,” which

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Michigan Utility Reliability Performance Worse Than Ever, New CUB Report Finds

Michigan electric utilities take longer to restore power to customers following outages than utilities in any other state, while also performing poorly on most other metrics related to reliability, affordability and the environment, according to this year’s edition of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) of Michigan’s annual Utility Performance Report. Michigan utilities ranked 51st out

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Unwarranted Attack on Cost Saving Transmission Expansion

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which manages the grid in most of Michigan and much of the central United States, has launched one of the most ambitious transmission expansion efforts in decades. Its Long-Range Transmission Plan (LRTP) calls for thousands of miles of new high-voltage lines, an effort which promises to deliver billions in

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Path to Clean Energy in the U.P. Easier Than What Has Been Portrayed

One of the Upper Peninsula’s largest utilities claims that compliance with state renewable energy standards would necessitate decisions that would lead to drastic bill increases for ratepayers. In its request to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) for approval of its Amended Renewable Energy Plan (Case U-21813), Upper Michigan Energy Resources (UMERC), argued that to

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CUB Points to Vital Role of Michigan LIHEAP Funding As It Faces Proposed Cuts

Photo by Brendan Wood, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0   For over 40 years, the federal government’s Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been assisting ratepayers across Michigan. In 2025, the program provided about $160 million for low-income and emergency assistance in Michigan alone. That is why ratepayer advocates across our state were alarmed to

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Transmission Line Benefits Being Debated Before MPSC

Public comments keep rolling in to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) regarding two cases in which the MPSC is considering granting certificates of public convenience and necessity for the Michigan portions of two major proposed transmission lines: Case U-21471, regarding the line proposed between the Oneida Substation in Eaton County and Nelson Road Substation

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Cover MI CUB Gas Transition

New CUB of Michigan Report: Gas Utility Investments Will Weigh On Customer Bills Over The Next 25 Years

Customers of the three-largest gas utilities in Michigan are on track to see their bills soar over the next few decades, as the utilities continue sky-high spending on gas infrastructure, a new report released by the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) of Michigan reveals. In addition to the bill impacts, utility gas infrastructure investment plans are

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Utility pole in Michigan

DTE and Consumers Energy Are in State of Denial About Michigan’s Electric Reliability Problem

In September of last year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) released the results of a comprehensive distribution system audit conducted by third-party firm The Liberty Consulting Group (see this blog post containing some initial takeaways from when the audit was first released), giving DTE and Consumers Energy until mid-November to respond. The responses, both

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