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On Sept. 8, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), in an order, gave a stark assessment of the state of Michigan’s grid that likely rings true with the tens of thousands of ratepayers that have lost power over the last few weeks: “Put bluntly, Michigan’s distribution reliability is inadequate, and current plans for improvements are insufficient.” The […]

The Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) Aug. 22 hearing in Detroit was a rare opportunity for DTE residents to express their frustration with paying high rates for electric service that is only getting more and more unreliable in the face of worsening severe weather. DTE customers did not let that opportunity go to waste, as

It is often talked about how renewable energy, chiefly wind and solar, has increasingly become one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation, meaning there is not a tradeoff between clean energy and affordable energy. That is overall true, which is why CUB tends to push Michigan utilities toward a greater use of renewables. But

Summer is here, and so is the season of mass power outages. Widespread, prolonged blackouts have struck American Electric Power customers in our neighbor to the south, and outages affecting thousands of customers recently occurred in Michigan. Of course, when you are dealing with thousands of miles of power lines, some outages are inevitable, especially in stormy weather.

On May 12, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) issued an order in which it agreed to a proposal suggested by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan meant to ensure that the state’s regulated utilities take full advantage of new federal funding opportunities for a variety of renewable energy, smart grid

CUB, the Michigan Attorney General and other parties have reached a settlement with the Upper Peninsula utility Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp. (UMERC) that the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) expects will help confront the greater UP’s problem of overreliance on natural gas (U-21081). The settlement, approved by the MPSC at its May 12 meeting,

Several weeks ago the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) issued a disappointing order that, for the most part, ignored the reforms proposed by the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) of Michigan and other groups and did not hold the state’s utilities accountable for increasingly frequent power outages. Read our blog post here and our initial statement for the full background on

“DTE and Consumers Energy, which together provide power to a majority of Michigan residents, appear to be aiming for just marginal improvements in grid reliability. Much more is needed for Michigan residents to be safe and secure in their homes with stable access to electricity, a basic necessity,” CUB Executive Director Amy Bandyk wrote in